Firefly In Ice
by Auster
Summary: A runaway fire demon drowning in bloodshed. An arrogant elfin prince of a frozen land. Well they do say opposites attract. They also say that you should never trust an appearance, especially if you want to survive this war. AU YxYY and slight BxR
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh. Obviously.

**Firefly In Ice**

Prologue

Deep black shadows twined possessively around the huddled figure of an ancient soul, trapping him forever in their embrace. Flashes of red fire in the distance and close by gave no light, they seemed to be as blank as the darkness, and more like paint on a canvas then anything real. They floated at an impossibly slow rate; they seemed to aid the shadows in the destruction and of the light, sucking it away like tiny, self-contained black holes: they defied every law of physics like the swirling vortexes themselves.

The figures eyes were closed but it would make no difference if they were open, the male could not remember when he was last able to see, the shadows made sure no source of light entered the figure's private hell. From far away the sound of a steady drip, drip of stagnant water echoed off the rough stonewalls, otherwise it was silent. Complete dead silence. The shadows robbed him of the ability to breathe, stilling his lungs and heart and the little blood left in his veins, effectively leaving his muscles in a state of paralysis.

Drip, drip…

The water continued to fall as always onto weathered stone. The male wasn't even sure it was stone. Gravity did not exist here, he was held entirely by the shadow's tendrils, their grip so icy it burned on his skin. Occasionally a tendril would shift in it's unending black flow leaving another precious drop of what little blood he had left to fall from his body and join the water.

Drip, drip, drip…

The fires continued their perpetual dace, bobbing and swaying in what could only be described as air. Perfectly still air. Every now and then a flame would come close enough to the figure to brush against a shadow and then the tendril would recoil angrily as if something had suddenly gone very wrong. Both of the entities would seem to hiss at each other before shooting a bolt of sheer pain through the figures frozen nerves. But he never moved and he never screamed, there was no air within him with which he could utter a sound and the stimulation only helped to awaken his stilled mind further.

Drip, drip, drip, drip…

He did not know how long he had been here in this state, it felt like eternity but he knew that it had not been. He did not know why he was here but he knew there was a reason, whether that reason was legitimate or not did not seem to matter to the keepers of his hell. He did not even know what he was, he knew he had forgotten and he knew that once he had been considered a bad thing in the eyes of outsiders, but he did not understand that, it seemed wrong to him.

Drip, drip, drip…

A tendril shifted. The fires floated. A drop of blood fell from his skin. He continued to wait.

Drip, drip…

The still air remained as frozen as his body. His mind continued to pulse in it's agonisingly slow thought pattern despite the shadows efforts to kill it, readying it's self to awaken completely. To move his dying body. He knew…

Drip…

He knew… they could not hold him forever.

…Silence…

It all happened at once. And with a sudden severity it almost finished him in his fragile state. The water stopped. The shadows' tendrils, every single one of them, shifted together to form one huge tight ring constricting his body. The bobbing flames grew larger, flew faster. The air was no longer still.

An inhuman screech ripped open the silent atmosphere, destroying an entire era of preservation in a single instant. The air became wind, became a hurricane. Whipping up the once stagnant water, filling the air with moisture and blowing every single one the flames into one place. Towards the huddled figure.

In unison the small fires slammed into the tendril of shadows, a clash that lasted a single moment and in a swirling vortex of black and red they consumed each other. In their destruction sending a tidal wave of raw agony through the body of the male: inside he screamed, it felt as if he was being consumed with the clashing pair, as if every single part of him were being ripped to shreds piece by tiny piece. His mind woke under the onslaught of pain, his heart began to beat, his blood began to pulse within his frozen limbs and the binding broke.

Air ripped through his lungs at a ferocious pace as another inhuman screech of rage and desperation flooded the great cavern, pounding at his delicate ears and installing within him a feeling of terror. Thick black tendrils shot out from seemingly nowhere, their colour so utterly dark they could be seen even in this blackness, there were hundreds of them, fighting the wind to get to him. To imprison him.

He would _not_ let that happen.

Still totally blind and flexing muscles long forgotten the figure shot out into the darkness, away from the tendrils of darker shadows lashing out to grab him, and up until he found a rocky cave ceiling, slickened with moisture and slime. Following instinct and returning memory he darted to the right and found, embossed deep into the stone, a circle of smooth wet wood surrounded by particularly rough and dangerous spike-like protrusions.

The shadows were close. He could feel their icy touch coming towards him with all the speed they could muster in this wind. But the wind was dying down and a quick glance behind him proved what he already knew and dreaded: the flames were rekindling.

Whispering furiously in a cursed language the male clawed desperately at the trap door, throwing all of his slight weight against it and snarling as it began to open all too slowly for his needs. His power levels were too low! The utter lack of blood flowing through his parched veins made him sluggish and delirious. He was weakening terribly! In a moment he would be dead!

If the shadows didn't get to him first.

_Yes! _With an echoing bang the oval of thick dark wood hit the other side of the threshold, squealing awfully on a set of rusted hinges. The tendrils recoiled suddenly in shock. Light poured in. White gold, blinding light. The figure clenched his eyes shut, hissing in displeasure as it burned his overly sensitive eyes. Sound and smell blasted through the newly opened hole but the male ignored it, pushing the sensations to the back of his mind where they remained as a dull throb. Fighting down the sheer shock his body and mind were on the verge of succumbing to through the very sudden astronomical change in environment he was kick started into action as he felt a great surge of cold hit his back. The black tendrils had recovered sooner then he had.

Clawed hands grasped the edges of the threshold, pulling the small body up and out of the black cave with all the strength he had left. He tore lose of the lashing whips gripping onto him and scrabbled desperately towards the light that even now was burning through his closed eyelids. His skin scraped the sides of the door and for once the figure thanked his small stature, had he been any larger he would not have fit through.

A final scream savaged the air: one of anger and hate. It was a promise. An oath. The tendrils withdrew back into the deep almost liquid like darkness as the figure climbed fully out of the shallow tunnel and hastened to heave the rotten wooden door back into place now working on pure strength of will to keep himself conscious. With a grotesque screech of un-oiled hinges the door crashed down into place. A great echoing bang declared it was all over. He had won

In it's new world the figure fell, succumbing to shock from all the new sensations and exhausted from its eternity of torture. A different kind of darkness rushed to embrace him as he collapsed on the soft but freezing substance beneath him. He welcomed this darkness as he fell into unconsciousness.

Under the trap door in the cavern of living shadows. New sets of small ruby red fires began a different slow bobbing dance. Twisting demonically within the still air of the shadows hell. In the distance the endless dripping of water continued to fall from deadly pointed stalactites. The shadows whispered in the dark.

Drip…drip…

Drip…

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Admittedly the end part is corny and I really think I could have done better with it but for the moment it will be left as it is simply because my brain is one huge blank, lack of sleep does that to people.

I'm hoping to get the next chapter for both this and Phoenix's Ashes up sometime next week after I've gotten over the shock of being thrown headlong into my new job (blame my dad).

Anyway. I bet you can't guess who the figure is. I'll give you a clue: he isn't the usual one… did even that make sense?

Review please and it may just motivate me to work faster. :)


	2. Chapter One

I can now officially vouch for all those people who stay in bed all day with the flu. Seriously it's the worst thing ever! I've never had it before and now I can barely move! And still my mum threw me into work yesterday, absolutely no sympathy, I hope she catches it!

**Firefly In Ice**

**Chapter One**

"_Hey, Ryou?… Earth to Ryou."_

"_Hmm?"_

"_Do you remember that time we first met 'Kura?" _

"_Don't let him hear you calling him that. And yes, how could I forget." _

"_Well I was… thinking."_

"_Now I _am _worried."_

"_Hey! No seriously. You remember that you two didn't exactly… get along at first."_

"_Yes."_

"_And now the two of you screw like rabbits on viagra."_

"_Very eloquently put I'm sure."_

"_Well you know that… _thing_ we were talking about?"_

"_Where exactly are you going with this?" _

"_And… and you know that… that elf we met a few weeks ago?"_

"_Yuugi…?"_

* * *

The first thing he was aware of was the noise. A strange rustling that seemed to encompass him and stretch throughout the world. Was that what the wind sounded like when it blew through… what was it? Trees? He remembered trees. They were green weren't they? And then he heard something that should have been loud but was too far in the distance to be important. This noise was sharp and unruly; it sent a flicker of something strange through his heart.

Then he became aware of something hard pressing against him, pushing up against his body, and of something holding him down. For a moment he panicked. The shadows never felt like this! Was this some kind of new trick they were using to torture him? Then he remembered. He had escaped hadn't he? He had escaped their clutches. Something strange and very unusual coursed through him at the memory: joy. Utterly ecstatic the prone figure redoubled his efforts to wake up properly. Was that gravity that was holding him down? Was that the feeling of his own weight pushing down against solid ground beneath him? It felt strange and good and natural.

He concentrated on what he felt beneath him. It was very cold but compared to the shadow's icy grip it was nothing short of warmth incarnate; it was very soft and compacted easily under the smallest of force. He breathed out slowly. The substance was covering him in a thin sheet and after what he had been living in for the past eternity it felt like heaven. Was this what it felt like to be content?

Focusing he tried to get his body to move. He hissed quietly to himself when pain was the only response he got. He hadn't been able to move in centuries and after that mad dash trough the cave it was as if his whole body had cramped up from the strain. Changing his direction of focus the male began to breathe deeply through his nose and almost yelped at the scents that hit him. The most prominent smell was of moisture; cold fresh and deeply invigorating it drove him to want more. There was the scent of vegetation too; it was faint but just as fresh. But there was another smell there that made his heart beat faster and his mind race with a thousand questions; this one was warm and tangy and it seemed to sing throughout his spirit and give him strength and purpose again. And he knew without a doubt that he had to find its source.

Fighting to stay awake his body seemed to react instinctively to the smell and for that he was grateful, it gave him the will power to open his eyes. Prying the lids apart the first thing that he registered was white. Endless amounts of white. He squinted as the sight hurt his sensitive vision, had he escaped from a world of utter darkness to be kept in a world of pure white? Blinking rapidly he fought down the tears that rose to his eyes at the pain they felt and after what felt like a long time they adjusted better. Moving his gaze to the side and upward he blinked again to clear the blurry fog of his vision and saw a hint of another colour. Green. Were those trees under all that white? He focused and saw numerous patches of green under the white; in fact these patches surrounded him. He was surrounded by trees. What was it they called large groups of trees? A forest? He was in a forest?

Unsure whether being in a forest was a good thing or not he looked back at the white stuff. He couldn't remember ever seeing anything like it before; it was pure and cold and soft. What an obscure combination. It seemed to cover almost every inch of surface so he assumed it was natural but there was something about it he was not at all comfortable with.

He sniffed again and that same enticing scent reached his nose, it seemed to have gotten stronger. It sent a thrum of energy through his paralytic body and urged him to move. Bracing himself the figure flexed his cramping muscles and moved his arms so that his elbows pointed up to the sky and pressed his palms against the ground, heaving his chest up off the white substance and, trembling violently with the effort, leant upwards until his back was straight and he was sat without support upon his knees.

He blinked slowly, moving his gaze around the clearing he found himself in. The white stuff had fallen off his back as he sat up and now made a small mound behind him. He could hear that sound off in the distance again; it was sporadic and violent. He turned his head and tilted it to the side listening and then with a frown he sniffed again; the sound and the smell were coming from the same place. Well at least now he had a direction to head in. Looking down at the ground again he tried to discern exactly were the trap door was so he could make a point to avoid it in the future. There was a slight dip in the white substance near to his side and next to that was another mound that must have been made when he pushed the door open. Reaching out the male brushed his claws through the dip and revealed wood; wincing slightly he quickly covered the door back up and moved his hand away.

Shifting his knees he braced his hands and feet on the floor and pushed off from the ground. His first attempt to stand failed due to his cramping leg muscles but on the second he managed to cling to a tree as he adjusted to the feeling of his own weight pushing him down. He was surprised by the smile that pulled his lips upwards at such a simple achievement. He couldn't remember the last time he smiled. It felt good to smile.

Stumbling forwards he managed to grip the trunk of the next tree along and, moving gingerly, succeeded to progress this way for quite some time. Now and then he would stop to sniff the air or listen for the noise in order to pinpoint the direction he needed to head in, he found it amusing the way he could make his pointed ears move a little so he could hear better in a specific direction. His eyes still smarted from the amount of light in this world but he could tell by the way he looked up and saw the sky that this was not as bright as it could get. What was it they called this time of the suns cycle? Night? It was turning out that he might have to remain a night creature whilst he adjusted. The white substance beneath his feet was becoming troublesome; it was thick and stubborn. He was now buried almost up to his knees in it. What had seemed like such a blessing at first was fast becoming a serious irritant.

Suddenly though the substance began to thin, as if it had been shovelled away by thousands of little hands. He paused at the sight that met him. There were marks in the white stuff. Narrow imprints that held a faint resemblance to the prints he left behind. Footprints? There looked to be a single track leading off to his right, the prints looked disproportioned and broken, as if the creature that had left them had been stumbling and struggling as it walked. The footprints lead in the direction of the smell.

He followed them. Maybe he could find this creature and ask it to help him, maybe if it was in pain he could help it in return.

The male wondered with some apprehension exactly what type of creature he would meet. He could not remember ever conversing with another intelligent being even though he knew he must have done during the time before he was imprisoned. But that had been so long ago would they even understand what he was saying?

As if to interrupt his thoughts the figure suddenly found himself stood before a deep hollow in the white stuff, the footsteps ended here, the creature that made them was nowhere to be seen and the hollow seemed to be filled with a dark black, thick liquid. It smeared across the white substance, turned it dark, tainted it. Confused he lifted his nose to the sky and attempted to pinpoint the animals sent. Something spicy and metallic but cooling rapidly hit his senses and the figure almost reeled at the potency of it. He looked at the black liquid. This was what he was looking for? Had the creature left it for him?

Slowly, gingerly, he crouched down, hissing as his muscles protested painfully to the action. The heavy limbs protruding from his shoulder blades drooped down on each side of him and for a moment he simply stared at the thin dark skin stretched between the strong narrow bones. What were they called? He couldn't remember noticing them before. Wings? His wings? And they were used to fly weren't they? He hummed to himself; when he got his strength back he would have to try them out. Though he had no memories of flight he felt somewhere that flying was a good thing. He would enjoy it.

The smell of the liquid before him was enticing him, seducing him, it looked thoroughly unappetising but the smell was otherworldly! It moved his head forward until he was close enough to lick it off the white ground. Tentatively he flicked his tongue across it and gasped at the sensations that hit him. All the pain seemed to wash away to be replaced by a tingling pleasant feeling, he knew without having to look that his wounds were beginning to heal. He could feel the strength returning to his limbs as he licked more and more off the ground. What was the name of this liquid? Why did it heal him so? And where, when it was gone, would he find more?

Realising he had closed his eyes he opened them to see if there was anymore liquid left and almost cried out when he saw there was none. He had taken all of it, even the thin layer of white stuff under it, into his body. A sense of something strange came to him then, he didn't know why but it almost felt wrong, this savouring of the black liquid, he felt that he shouldn't have enjoyed it. But… why shouldn't he when it nourished and helped him so much, why shouldn't he drink it if it gave him that kind of pleasure?

Snorting he pushed the feeling away and stood again with a little less strain then before. The pain had come back, he hadn't been fully healed, and he was still weak. He needed to find more.

Continuing his journey towards what he could smell was a much larger source of the liquid he noticed the noise was becoming louder, what did it mean? He turned his head to look behind him when he finally noticed something that he had felt all along. There was another limb besides his arms and legs and wings connected to the base of his spine. It was dark, like the colour of his wings, thicker at the top and thinning steadily as it progressed to a fine tip. The tip was sharp and pointed; it looked as if there was an arrowhead attached to the end. It trailed through the white ground behind him like a snake; he could move and lift it from the ground even if it did feel like one of the heaviest parts of his body. Was this his tail? What was a tail for? He could feel the powerful muscles contained within it even through his weakness; maybe it was for defence or something along those lines, though he could not see why he would need to defend himself. One thing he did not understand, however, was the colour of the skin on his tail and wings. It was dark, almost black, upon those appendages but on the rest of his body his skin was white, as pure almost as the substance beneath him and he could not find any obvious reason as to why it would be that way.

But then he was distracted by a sudden noise. Snorting and grunting sounds were coming closer and closer towards him. He stood up straight to meet them; by the sound of their feet there were roughly five of them. Were these the creatures that had left the other footprints? Were these the animals that carried that liquid? He would have to be prepared to do a little persuading to get what he wanted.

But then they crashed through the vegetation only a foot or two before him and the male found that all he could do was stare. What were they? They had the same basic shape as him but they possessed neither wings nor tails, their skin was entirely black and their eyes were small and crude. They had covered their bodies in some kind of thick dirty materiel; it was covered in a dried and crusted mixture of both red and black liquid, as were the sharp blades they carried at their sides. The male sniffed and discovered these creatures were rife with the nourishment he wanted, but besides their clothes and swords were did they keep it? He looked at the one that seemed to be the leader and asked his question, but his voice came out as a horse unintelligible growl that sounded feral and vicious even in his own ears.

They did not answer him. They only looked at him in fear and horror. He hated that fear! He hated that they were scared! They shouldn't be scared, they should be brave and face him, they carried swords used for the specific purpose of causing pain and death so if a fight was what they wanted then they should come to him, not stand there in frozen hatred!

He hated that fear. He hated the fact that he liked it.

And despite himself the male felt a smile pull his lips upwards. He took a step towards the creatures and saw to his horrified satisfaction that they took several steps backwards, all except one who did not seem able to move. He took several more steps and found himself directly in front of the creature, he looked at its little black eyes and hated and loved what he saw there. A delicate sniff confirmed his superstitions. These animals carried _within_ them that liquid that so healed and nourished him, that liquid he was going to need if he wanted to survive. With his mind in a strange haze he lifted a clawed hand high, poised to strike, took a moment to watch the creature's eyes change ever so subtly, and then, still smiling, he drove his claws down towards the creature's throat.

And beyond that was only a blur of red and black and white. Pleasure and need and noise and such a delicious smell. A smell that drove him mad until he felt himself crash through the undergrowth having finished with the original creatures, felt more creatures under his claws and teeth, more noise that drove his sanity far away from his mind until through that haze he felt harsh ropes around his body, pulling him down and finally forced upon him a darkness that was the oblivion of sleep.

"Take it to the dungeons, the solitary cell."

* * *

_"Yuugi… please don't continue with this. You know we aren't supposed to…"_

"_You cannot tell me the only thing you feel for Bakura is lust Ryou! I am not that stupid!"_

_"Yet clearly there is something missing from between your ears if you do not realise the consequences of your actions!"_

"_Do not mock me! I know perfectly well what we are and aren't supposed to do. And I tell you let them come! They will have one _hell_ of a fight on their hands!" _

**AN:** I'm gonna go to sleep now and skive off college tomorrow, hopefully my parents will be at work all day and won't notice.

This chapter, admittedly, kind of ran away with me. It was originally going to be part of the prologue but I realised that it wouldn't fit very well if I did that. Anyway no updates next week 'coz I'll be in Slapdon (I think thats how you spell it) with the college Geography department having a great time studying the process of sand dune formation -sarcastic cheering-.

Thanks for reading, please review, it'll make me feel better. Like virtual medicine! Okay now I know I'm not well. Feel free to point out any typos, if they aren't supposed to be there I will do my best to fix them.

-weak grin- You people best be grateful, the computer screen is really hurting my head right now. This chapter is really more of a descriptive setting up of the story to come then anything else but really I couldn't have him jumping up after 1000-odd years of sensory deprivation and feeling perfectly in tune with the world could I?

Disclaimer: Nope!


	3. Chapter Two

Okay dokay, by all standards I should be concentrating on my history coursework but instead I'm here. Hi.Disclaimer: How many times do I have to tell you people 'NO'?

And finally we have some names. Characters are finally being properly introduced: everyone cheer with me now. I'm afraid I have fallen into the trap of giving Jounouchi the typical cliché roll he always seems to have in fics like this but ah well, its what he suits best after all. I think I may also be recovering from that small bought of depression I've been suffering from; I don't think I thank doctors as much as I should.

**Firefly In Ice**

**Chapter Two**

_"Umm… Y-Your highness?""What?"_

"_May I ask you a question?"_

"_That all depends upon the nature of your question."_

"_Well… you know I'm supposed to protect you right? You know that I'm meant to keep an eye out for you?"_

"_Like the child my parents think I am yes. But, personal guard or not, you do little in the way of protection. I do not need it."_

"_I know sire. But it's just that lately… you disappear a lot."_

"_And you are worried that you will be dismissed for not fulfilling your duties? Fear not, my parents won't find out about my disappearances. _Will _they."_

"_N-not if you do not wish it my prince. But am _I _not allowed to worry."_

"… _Is this your question?"_

"_Not really."_

"_Then hurry and ask it. My patience wares thin."_

"_What do you do when you vanish? I have to know you aren't in any danger your Excellency."_

"_And that is your question?"_

"… _Yes."_

"_Then I will not answer it." _

* * *

Today was a cold day. Colder then usual anyway, which considering the land was perpetually covered in ice was saying quite a lot.

He liked the cold.

There was something about the snow that was incredibly beautiful. Since childhood the first thing he had always done after a fresh snowfall was leave the castle and ride his horse through the virgin white, across the wide plains and through the deep greens of the conifer forests, leaving a trail behind him of one narrow rut. A single path of hooves across otherwise untouched snow.

Lately though he had been forced to abandon this luxury for more pressing matters. Matters of war and eligible women. He found he disliked growing up.

And so when he had woken early that morning and seen the results of last nights blizzard he had left his bed for the stables before even his grandfather woke. Picking out his favourite mare from the herd he had ridden bareback (as was his peoples custom) to his most favoured part of the kingdom, the vast open plains. The Tundra. It seemed to him then that he had been freed from his duties by the sheer emptiness of the snow-covered land around him. He loved the feel of the cold powder spraying upwards about his legs, kicked up by the horses cantering hooves, and he loved the thought of how it would look to others. This sight of him speeding over the flat white ground like a black arrow, the snow flying up behind him as seawater would behind a fast ship. Not that there was anyone so far from the city _to _see him.

So far did he allow himself to be carried away by the feeling of freedom that it was very late afternoon by the time he returned to the castle. The poor mare was exhausted and neither of them had eaten since the night before, but he was content.

It was what happened next that he did not enjoy.

"Prince Yami where exactly have been?!"

Yami winced. Of all the welcomes he could have received… "Nowhere Father, I was only visiting the Tundra."

"What were you doing to be gone for so long? Comb searching the whole thing? There is a war on Yami! A war!"

"I know father."

"No Yami I do not think you do. Your mother is sick to death with worry, you could have been taken by the enemy out there in that wilderness alone and with no weapons. What were you thinking!"

"They would not have ventured onto the Tundra father you know that. It is too open for them."

"Don't argue with me young one! You will apologise to your mother and go directly to your room, you will not leave it until you have rid yourself of these foolish whims, do you hear me!"

"Father you cannot treat me like this. I am no mortal child, you punish me as those humans would their own offspring."

"Have you ever thought that perhaps they may be on to something with their child's disciplining?"

"No, frankly I have not. And I will not allow you to order me around in such a manner! I am one hundred and seventy this year father, I am no longer a child!"

"Then maybe you should cease to act like one and take the responsibility you were born to shoulder. Find a bride, come to the war room, and show interest in the regiment of soldiers I have put under your order."

"The tenth regiment father? They are country boys and farmers, simpletons compared to me! I want the second regiment, the real soldiers!"

"Do not speak of your own people that way Yami. Remember a king is supposed to lead and protect his people, to serve _them_, not the other way around."

Furious Yami turned from his father and stalked up the white castle steps. There was never any snow in the city, the elves magic ensured that, but sometimes he sorely wished there was. The guards stood as ridged as always at regular intervals along the halls and corridors, their spears pointing directly upwards as if pointing to the heavens themselves, Yami ignored them, he always did. He never actually _saw_ them do anything, as a child he had tried to trick them, aggravate them into moving, into proving they weren't simply lifelike statues, but they never did and eventually he had given up. Bored with his own game. And had thus ignored their existence, almost forgetting them entirely.

His father had dismissed him by not calling him back; he thought it was a punishment for his little spat. HA! Spat! His parent's new nothing about him. And he intended to keep it that way. His father was a fool. Ruling as if he were almost below the people. How ridiculous! They were the divine family! He was the divine heir and soon to be keeper of all of the elves magic and his father expected him to _serve_ the people he was supposed to lead. His father was a fool.

Yami didn't go to his mother to apologise, although he loved her dearly and was regretful of her anxiety he did not feel as though he done anything wrong, and she was too easily upset these days from the loss of his cousin in battle. She needed to get a grip Yami thought as he snapped at a passing castle worker to bring him a late lunch. Seto was as much an idiot as his father and uncle. He used to strut around the halls as if _he_ were the eldest prince and Yami the unfortunate mage-in-training that had just missed out on a royal title. Yami had hated him with a passion and he was certain Seto felt the exact same hatred towards him. Upon the announcement of his cousins _unfortunate_ death the only thing that had repressed his smile of glee where his mother's tears, and damned be to the rest of them. And so Yami did not go to visit his mother because he knew she would manage to wind herself up and end up in tears because she thought he had been killed. They were all idiots, the goblins would never venture onto the Tundra; they lived in caves for heavens sakes, why would they be, quite randomly, scouring the open plains? It was nice to know they cared, really, but they could be perfect fools sometimes.

He slammed his bedroom doors behind him only to growl as a knock on the wood from outside forced him to open them again. He snatched the platter of food from the maid woman and slammed the door again, irritated that it didn't have quite the same effect now it had been repeated. Sitting at his private table he stared broodingly over at the open balcony doors, the cold did not effect his people as it did those silly humans and so he felt perfectly warm and at ease with the icy breeze eddying about his room. He twirled his silver fork around his plate. Despite the fact that he was starving he was too angry to concentrate on eating, and so he picked at the cold meat of the arctic fox on his plate, until, halfway through his meal, he looked down and saw that he really didn't fancy eating a plate of mangled mush. Yami pushed the silver plate away and reminded himself to reprimand the cooks later for sending him such an unappetising looking meal.

Grabbing a large round red fruit from the cone shaped dish in the centre of his table Yami concentrated his aggression on ripping off its skin. Find a bride? He would much rather not. Brides wanted attention, they wanted affection, and they even wanted love! A bride was a silly thing he wanted to manage without for as long as possible. Besides, he didn't feel anything towards any of the maidens of the court nor for any of the worker girls it was almost acceptable for him to have flings with as long as he was unwed. Maybe the odd pang of lust when that red haired nobleman's daughter flashed her green eyes at him over the banquette table but nothing more.

He took a bite of the bitter flesh of the fruit and scowled. Nothing more… Did he even _want_ anything more? There was no one in the kingdom that wouldn't jump at the chance to be his bonded partner, he was certain. But was there someone in the kingdom who would jump at the chance if he weren't a powerful prince? He didn't know. Everyone wanted power after all, but not everyone wanted love. He knew he wanted power and he knew he had it but did he want love as well? It seemed like an unnecessary distraction. Yami knew what love was but he had never felt it himself. He was quite happy without it thank you very much.

His head snapped up from staring at the groves his teeth had made in the fruit at the sudden sound of a horn. A battle horn. It echoed from the top of the chief watchtower a few miles away and flooded the city with its deep call.

Yami knew what that meant, "_Shit!" _He growled.

He dropped the fruit; it fell with a dull thud upon his immaculate floor and rolled under the many grand legs of his table. He leapt from the high backed chair and sped out to stand on the balcony, griping the white stone railing tightly as he strained to see above the castles roofs and turrets. The sun was beginning to set, its pale glow already touching the mountaintops. Over the high city walls a rough mile away he saw a mass of black dots swarming over the white and black mountains in the far distance. They had already reached the foot of the hills and were making their swift way towards the city. The sound of the castle guards leaping into action was already echoing up from below.

The sound of the doors to his chambers bursting open caused Yami to turn and glare at the elf that had burst in. His personal guard skidded to a halt before him and bowed hastily.

"Your Highness. The goblins they –"

"I have eyes Jounouchi." Yami snapped.

Jounouchi stalled, confused, then looked over the Prince's shoulder to see the black swarm of dots crossing the snow and nodded, his mouth forming a small 'O' of comprehension. Yami brushed past his guard as he walked back through the balcony doors.

"Has father sent you?"

Jounouchi trailed after him as Yami entered the hallways outside his room. "Yes… and no. Did his Majesty the King not tell you were commanding the tenth regiment sir?"

Yami growled, "Unfortunately yes."

Jounouchi nodded, his pale gold armour making ever so quite clinks as he walked. "They are waiting for you by the stables Sire, the King wishes for you to lead them towards conflict with the right wing of the enemy defence, to draw them away from the centre. I am to be your second in command."

Yami resisted the urge to roll his eyes as the guard puffed himself up in pride. Reaching the royal armoury he replaced his soft leather boots for hardier, black riding boots. A thin vest of extremely rare, extremely valuable mithril. The beauty of its silver sheen shimmered like light on water across the great stone walls as Yami moved. The grace and powerful elegance of his step only surpassed by the fluidity with which the material moved. And then it was covered by a long, jet-black leather coat that reached to the elfin prince's knees. Adjusting the golden buckled cuffs Yami replied to Jounouchi's earlier statement, "So we attack the right flank while father and the first regiment go for the centre?"

"Yes. The ninth are going for the left."

"So. While we go for the two sides and the goblins are distracted father crashes trough to the heart of their ranks and destroys them from the inside thus earning all the glory and recognition."

"Umm…"

"How many of us are on horseback?"

"We are Sire, and the ninth regiment. The first and second will be following your father on horseback too. Battalions three through to seven are remaining to defend the city and the eighth will follow us on foot to pick off the stragglers."

Yami frowned. Jounouchi sounded very convinced that they would win, he knew morality had to be kept but… They had had so many setbacks and tragedies. The goblins were so numerous, apparently endless. Their mines and tunnels stretched for miles underground, they had taken two of the major cities already by bursting up from out the ground. The magic around the capital had thus been enforced; they could not take this city that way. But if they could break through the elfin defences they could easily destroy the main gate. The elfin soldiers were good… but the goblins were wild. They thought and fought like savage beasts. It was impossible for the elves to keep up with that type of… living. They could not predict or counter attack efficiently because it was impossible for an elf to understand a creature like a goblin.

Yami looked back into his personal guards stubborn expression. Jounouchi's mane of blond hair visible from under the lightweight helmet swayed limply over his deep brown eyes that were filled with such a reckless determination and eagerness for battle that Yami had to wonder if Jounouchi actually knew what was happening to them.

Yami wondered if his father had told the people that they were losing the war.

* * *

"_Sire please. You must tell me. I am worried. The people are worried. Your parents are beginning to ask me where you are all the time."_

"_Then tell them I am visiting."_

"_Visiting? As in a friend?"_

"_Close enough."_

"_So each time you disappear its so you can go meet this person?"_

"_Don't get any ideas. I will not hesitate to remove you head from your shoulders myself if I find you spying." _

"_No Your Majesty I would never intrude."_

"_Good. Silence now. I am thinking."_

**AN:** A relatively small chapter but hey at least its an update. I was originally going to include part of the battle but then I thought that would probably be too much in one because we all know where you-know-who is right now don't we. (see ending of previous chapter if you don't).

I suppose your all wondering what the italics are supposed to be. Well shame 'coz I'm not telling. Not yet anyway, you'll find out soon. If there is anything you desperately want to ask me my email address is now on my profile page (and should be working better then it has been recently) I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

Next Chapter: We see the return of everyone's favourite little purple eyed bishie, with most of his memory back, and boy is he ready to kick some ugly goblin ass!

Judging by the hit counter (which is ridiculous compared to the review numbers) I don't think it would be unkind, or unfair, to ask for about five reviews for this chapter so I know the hard work (and artful dodging of college work) I am putting in is at least a little appreciated. Come on people. Five reviews out of over a hundred hits isn't asking for much is it? Please?


	4. Chapter Three

**AN:** This was painful to write. Well... not so much painful as drawn out. Most of it was written just after the last chapter was out and the rest of it finished in the past two days. So just a small time difference then. Didn't help that Microsoft Word had a bit of a spaz and I had to retype all of what I lost, good job most of that was on paper ne? Well I hope this lives up to expectations.

Oh, by the way, I'm basing what the demons of this story should look like off of Slifertheskydragon's beautifully drawn Demon Atemu on Deviantart. Check it out those who haven't seen it (although I find it hard to believe that anyone in the Yu-Gi-Oh fandom might not have seen it) 'coz its very, very pretty.

Warnings: This gets graphically violent during the fight scene so any of you with squeamish stomachs will Not want to read it. But if you're like me then it wont faze you (I'm not morbid, really) Remember I told you.

**Firefly In Ice**

**Chapter Three**

"_I always thought you were strange Yuugi but this takes the cake."_

"_I don't know Ryou, I kind of like it."_

"_And if you like it, Bakura, then my point has been successfully proven."_

"_Are you suggesting you don't like my sense of style?"_

"_Making necklaces of live animals does not count as 'style'."_

"_They had it coming."_

"_Can you two just drop it for a moment, I'm trying to think."_

"_Don't hurt your self."_

"_Well thanks for your concern… Are you sure he'll like it?"_

"_It's shiny, gold, pointy and big. What more could he want?"_

"_You know you're not very helpful."_

"_And, thus, my life's goal has been achieved."_

"_I thought you're life's goal was to eradicate all life on the planet."_

"_That too."_

* * *

He had woken to the sound of screams.

He had opened his eyes to the sight of slime-drenched walls.

For a moment he had panicked. He had thought he was back in Hell again, he had nearly screamed and cried and begged for it to have not been a dream. But then he remembered, his Hell had been silent save for the dripping of water and it had been utterly dark, he hadn't even been able to see the walls. This couldn't be Hell.

Then where was he?

As he stared at the brick of the wall only inches in front of him he thought. He searched his mind and realised, he wasn't confused. His mind was, at least mostly, clear and coherent. He could really concentrate on something. And so he concentrated. First he began with who… no _what_ he was (a surge of anger shot through him, the shadows had even robbed him of his sense of being). He was… he was…

"Beast! Let me go! You sinful, hateful beast!" The horse voice turned into another scream and something else gibbered an answer.

_Sinful… Beast… You… Yug…_

"Yuugi…" He whispered, "My name is Yuugi." He smiled. He remembered a name. His name. This was definitely a good start. It answered one of his most pressing questions. Now if only he knew who 'Yuugi' was supposed to be…

_Sinful… Hateful…Beast… Foul… Wrath?_

Why did that one sentence seem to open so much to him? Wrath… Wrath was a sin wasn't it? And a sin was supposed to be a bad thing right? And somehow he knew Wrath was connected to him so did that make _him_ a bad thing? A beast. Hateful. Foul. A… demon? Was that the term? It sounded familiar. And… and a demon was a bad thing too wasn't it? At least it sounded like a bad thing. So that made him a bad person. A bad demon yes?

So why didn't that feel right.

Closing his eyes as his head began to pound he gave up his search for himself that was confusing him even as he found more and more answers. He was Yuugi and he was a demon, that would have to do for now. He needed to concentrate on his surroundings.

The stone in front of him was jagged and rough though clearly it had been carved out purposefully and not by nature. He shivered. He was cold… and wet. He didn't like being wet. It felt unnatural; it felt like the opposite of… of… what it should be? Did that make sense?

Yuugi hissed as his head pounded.

He gave up on that like he gave up on his identity. He was cold and wet, that he knew and that he would have to do something about it. Yuugi closed his eyes for a moment, mentally searching for any injuries or strains his body may have attained. He found many. His knees and palms were red raw and his feet were frozen from the snow (to his joy he realised he remembered the name of the white substance that had greeted him upon his emergence), the delicate membranes of his wings were in tatters and he sighed remembering just how long it took them to heal, his tail was stiff and overly heavy on the cold floor and his stomach ached from hunger, clearly the creatures he had eaten before had not been enough to replenish his body. Yuugi opened his eyes again and inspected his claws with an experts eye, they were blunter then he would have liked and his hands were caked with the black blooded remains of his capturers, he growled quietly, he hated being dirty. He would have to do something about that as well.

Now came an attempt to move. Rolling over onto his stomach he pushed his knees and palms under himself and heaved upwards until he could lift his knees and replace them with his feet. He stayed still for a moment before lifting his head to see the back of his prison and snorted proudly, his tail tip swaying to and fro in accomplishment, he was standing without aid. True he was on all fours but he felt strangely more comfortable this way, his wings settled on his back with greater neatness.

Now in a more mobile state Yuugi stalked over to the bars of his prison, three walls consisted of solid rock so he had no chance of escape that way his only way of escape would be to see if there was a way out of this… cave was it? Or tunnel? Reaching the cold metal rods Yuugi stared at the sight that met him, across the corridor, perfectly opposite to his own was another prison cell. And it was occupied. The occupant was sat curled on the floor in a corner, closer inspection showed him that it had a chain around its ankle that connected to the wall behind it, it had long fair hair and great blue eyes that were currently staring at him as if he were the most terrifying thing here. Yuugi frowned, why would it be scared of him? It looked different from the creatures he had attacked, its skin was white instead of black and it was taller, slimmer. Surely a different species he surmised. Quite content with his current location Yuugi settled back on his hunches and curled his tail around his legs to conserve heat. Cocking his head to the side he growled, testing the creature's reaction. It gasped and curled into the wall further, muttering something under its breath. So it was scared of him, Yuugi thought, did this go back to the demons being bad thing? Probably.

Ignoring it for the moment Yuugi turned his head to see the corridor on either side and glimpsed rows of more prison cells set into the rock although the only ones he could partially see into were the ones diagonal to his, one to his right appeared empty but he could hear a faint shuffling that could be coming from either a rat or another captive, one to his left had an occupant very similar to the one in front of him but this one seemed even taller, it appeared unconscious sprawled out on the floor like that. Yuugi sniffed delicately and was hit with the sent of blood and fear. Fear from the one in front and blood from the unconscious one to his left. He frowned, worried, the injuries were clearly fresh and severe. He turned back to the creature opposite. It shifted and he saw its chest was larger then the other's, he frowned, the two were clearly the same species but he only vaguely remembered there could be differences. So if the one to his left was male that would make this one… female was it? That sounded right. Well surely she must be worried for her companion, Yuugi could hear his breath was becoming increasingly shallow.

He cleared his throat. "Do you know where I am?" his voice was hoarse and whispery but it sounded satisfactorily cordial.

She gaped at him, "You talk?!"

He was pleasantly surprised, the language hadn't changed since he was imprisoned and her voice was pleasant to listen to, "Of course. What did you expect me to do? Bark like some cute little animal."

She laughed weakly, "Not exactly."

Yuugi frowned as she looked away not even attempting to answer his question. He shuffled his front legs and winced as his palms scraped across the stone floor, perhaps she only needed a little persuasion, and the screaming had stopped a while ago so she had no excuse not to hear him. "Your friend looks unwell, I think he might be dying, why aren't you trying to do anything about it?"

Her head shot up then and Yuugi smiled, proud at having caught her attention so well, but she did not look so happy, "What? Who?"

"How should I know his name? He's right next to you, can't you smell him?"

She scowled, "No I cannot."

Yuugi blinked confused, "Why?"

"Because I'm not a beast, idiot!" she snapped. "Now tell me where he is!"

His tail twitched, offended, "I am not a beast I am a perfectly sentient being." He scowled over at the unconscious man, "And he is right next to you, on your right, my left."

"Demons are _not _sentient! They are half-intelligent savages and nothing more!"

He growled, ducking his head and raising his shoulders aggressively, "And what are _you _to be so high and mighty?"

She straightened her back and raised her head high, sticking her nose in the air with an almost unbearable pomposity, "_I, _demon, am an elf."

His eyes narrowed, "And…?"

She stared at him as if he were mad, "What do you mean 'and'? That's all anyone needs to know."

Yuugi raised his head a little, where elves that important? "So what exactly defines an elf? What are they?"

This time her eyes narrowed in a kind of suspicious confusion. She watched him for a long time then, finally, whispered, "Who are you?"

Yuugi snorted, he didn't like the direction of this conversation, turning away he padded over to the right side of his prison, he flopped down onto the floor, leaning back against the wall and laying much like a cat would in the sun.

"Well?" she said impatiently. He didn't look at her.

"I don't know!" he said forcefully, "I don't know where I am, what I'm doing, I barely know _what _I am. I would have thought our conversation would have revealed that to you!" He was angry with himself now, there had been no need to tell her anything but it had just slipped out, now she had an advantage over him.

She watched him with a kind of reluctant sympathy, clearly unsure whether to trust him or not, then finally said, "My name is Era. So called because I was born on the turn of the century."

Yuugi didn't feel like telling her his name so he stayed quiet.

She crawled forwards, "What does he look like, is his hair red? Is he wearing silver armour?"

He blinked, momentarily thrown by the change of topic then raised his head from his arms to look again, "More a kind of auburn brown, but he is wearing silver chain mail, what's left of it at least."

Era frowned in thought, "Then he came from the prince's regiment." She muttered.

Yuugi had little interest in princes and regiments so he settled back down and prepared to go to sleep again in an attempt to stop the pounding in his head. But Era spoke again, and this time with something that could help him. "You are in the Grey Mountain. We are prisoners."

He rolled his eyes, he could have told anyone that. "Prisoners of whom? Those little black clad creatures?"

"Yes. They are goblins." Well at least that told him something. Though it was a limited amount. "They brought you in a little after they left me here, we lost another battle and I thought you were a soldier until they took off the heavy chains binding you. I still don't understand how you could have been there though, that part of the forest is barren."

I could give you an explanation for that, Yuugi thought wryly.

"You are… hurt."

Yuugi blinked, now completely thrown off course, was she worried about him? "Nothing that can't be fixed with the right type of… medicine." He replied, reluctantly beginning to care about her opinion.

Era smiled, "I have some snow flowers left in my pouch, I could crush them if you want they make a powerful painkiller."

He stared at her, wasn't she hating him a moment ago?

There was no time to reply however; a crashing screech came echoing down the corridor signalling the opening of a door and the arrival of something rather unwanted. The stench made Yuugi's nose scrunch. Heavy footsteps reached his ears but he lay still, alert, relatively safe behind the bars.

One of those little black creatures, goblins, stepped into view, clanging at the bars of other cells and glaring as it passed. A guard? He watched it as it reached his cage. It harassed Era first, leering and gibbering at her like she was some entertaining animal. He made gestures that must have been rude or unpleasant because her intake of breath was angry and scandalised.

Yuugi snarled; insults were uncalled for.

The goblin jumped and turned at the sound. Then faced him with fear and disbelief in its tiny black eyes. He swayed his tail pointedly, flicking the arrow tip through the air, knowing from Era's reaction that he was feared on instinct by other creatures. Yuugi glared, he was still hungry after all.

There was a long moment of silence. Then the goblin started screeching in that horrible language, Yuugi's ears pressed themselves down on his skull to help block out the noise, it was loud enough to wake the dead! What was it doing! It was only a second later that it stopped and the sound of hundreds of footsteps rumbled the walls of the dungeon. What seemed like thousands of small black goblin faces appeared out of nowhere staring at him with a strange look in their eyes.

Yuugi growled again, lowering his body to look more threatening. He found he disliked being stared at; it made the hairs on the back of his neck rise and an uncomfortable nervousness rise in his abdomen. The general mass moved back but one at the front moved closer. This goblin was huge. There was an excess of leather hanging off his body and a disgusting mixture of feathers and obviously stolen gems entwined with dead vines around his head. Yuugi glared, a leader?

A small one stepped up to the taller's side and rasped, "It's awake."

The leader laughed, a bubbling chuckle resonated grotesquely form his mouth, "I can see that, idiot."

"Then should we test it? Is it ready?"

The leader's eyes gleamed greedily, "It's always ready, if you judge by what it did to our rear defence. Ready the coliseum!"

* * *

Ten minutes ago Yuugi couldn't have told anyone anything about a coliseum. Now he would give anything to _not_ know.

The sheer size of it had stunned him into submission long enough for them to wrestle him into the holding cage where he was now stood. The cavern was huge, thousands of stone tiers disappearing into the gloom of above, each one infested by a goblin audience screaming, chattering and stamping for more entertainment. And on each tier where a thousand more individual torches burning in metal brackets. The flames mesmerised Yuugi, he felt the warmth he desperately desired radiating from them even at this distance. The way they flickered called to him like sweet birdsong; he was fascinated by how different they were to the lightless flames of his Hell.

He rattled the chains encasing him, irritated by the pain they were causing to his already tender wounds. He was ignoring the scene in front of him. Goblin soldiers purposefully hunting and torturing ill-prepared and injured elfin prisoners.

According to Era this is what they did with prisoners of war.

She was out there fighting for her life. And there was nothing he could do to help her. Not now. Not with the chains aggravating his anger and the smell of blood slowly turning his mind into a raving need.

There was something rising inside of him, some kind of terrible and uncontrollable hunger. A snake in his stomach that would strike with his body. He wanted to go out there and help the poor creatures being tortured and treated like hunted beasts but… he was ashamed…

…He wanted to join in.

Not the torture. Mindless, reasonless torture was not something he ever wanted to indulge in but… but the feel of their soft flesh beneath his fangs and claws… the taste of their rich flavoured blood rolling over his tongue… the sated pleasure of his body as he fuelled it with the life of others… the feel of death in his claws…

He shuddered, unconsciously straining against the chains. Something to his side gave out a strange gibbering laugh.

How long he was forced to watch this game he didn't know, all he did know was that he was both hoping for and fearing the moment they let him out of the cage. In an attempt to keep himself occupied and distracted from his hunger he watched the little flaming torches dotting the walls as spherical orange lights. He noticed, after a long while of staring at the nearest one, that, if he concentrated he could manipulate it just slightly. He tilted his head to the side, the flame, for an instant, jumped to the left before settling back down. Yuugi frowned at it, this surely had something to do with what he was, it just had to. He jerked his head to the other side, the flame jumped right. No this definitely wasn't just freak coincidental wind. This was him. So… something else he had discovered about himself: his name was Yuugi, he was a demon, and he could manipulate fire. Compiled together with what he had learned from Era he thought he was certainly starting to get somewhere.

Now if only he could survive long enough to make use of this knowledge.

A sudden lull in the noise brought his attention back to the fight. He blinked, breaking his intense attention away from the torch, and turned to face the door to his tiny holding cage. The two small goblins that had been flanking the lock were listening to another he recognised as the one who had spoken to the leader earlier. He noticed the sudden tension in the air, the anticipation of those sat in the stands. The fighting had slowed to only scuffling as the silent word spread across the cavern. It did not help his hunger any.

Finally his keepers turned towards the lock of his cage, the sound of the metal bars creaking open seemed to be the sign for everyone to turn and stare but the chains still encased him and he could not do anything. The two fought for a moment over who would enter, both were reluctant. Eventually the one with a thin scar deforming the left side of his face stepped in. Yuugi felt the snake in his body poise to strike, the smell of its closeness and the anger he felt at their teasing him before made him growl softly.

He knew then that the one who freed him would not live.

Hesitantly, with an agonising slowness, his legs were released from the first chain. He did not move or even attempt to struggle as the goblin came closer to break the lock on the second set, his torso was freed, then his tail. He swished his tail when he could in a manner that looked as if he approved and the goblin, strangely reassured that he was so calm looking, moved faster. He lifted the one looped around his neck and then the one cramping his wings but stalled at the final set around his wrists.

The tension in the stadium was more then he could bare but he looked at the goblin and made a falsely encouraging noise. It stank of fear.

The last of the cold metal fell from his skin. The goblin looked at him for a moment, confused as to his lack of movement. There was a collective intake of breath.

And the snake struck.

He didn't hear the sudden roaring approval from the stands; the sound of the creature's fading heartbeat filled his ears too completely. His body hummed in pleasure from the nourishment as his meal slipped down his throat. He felt the clumps of flesh coming apart under his claws, and loved it. Though a small part of his mind remained horrified.

When the corpse below him was little more then an unidentifiable mash of blood and bone and ripped clothing he looked up to see that the fight had resumed wholeheartedly. A figure ran by to his right, perused by another, and he had to dig his claws into the sandy floor to keep from chasing after them. He recognised it as a hunter's instinct and was shocked to realise that he was, in fact, a predator. He felt stupid now when he remembered his musings in the woods that his claws and tail were for defence.

He heard Era's scream from near by and that helped him focus, mentally pushing away the desire to kill. He turned and ran in the direction of her voice, his palms smarted as they hit the ground and for an instant he entertained the idea of moving up onto two legs, but dismissed it soon enough, he could not move anywhere near as fast on two then he could on four.

He skirted a wrestling pair and narrowed his eyes as the female elf came into sight, sat uncomfortably on the sand her ankle blooded and twisted, her weapon out of reach, a huge goblin leering over her with it's rusted sword held high. He sped up. The sword began its deadly decent. When he was within a few feet he coiled the muscles of his back legs like a spring and leapt, colliding full on with the goblin's body. Taken by surprise the creature fell hard onto its back, he landed on top, the claws on his hands and feet digging into its torso. For an instant Yuugi's mind was clouded impossibly by a red mist, the moment the goblin tilted his head back he lunged instinctively forward, sinking his fangs into the vulnerable flesh of its neck. It yelled in agony. He jerked his head upwards feeling the hot meat raw and tender rip under his teeth, tearing its throat out with a satisfying gurgling scream. He felt the wet meat slip down his throat, was struggling to regain control and not lunge forward again to rip more flesh off the dead body beneath him. A hunter deserved his spoils.

Again it was Era's voice that brought him back to reality, what she was saying he couldn't discern but it finally allowed him enough clarity to pull himself away from a should-have-been meal and walk up to her side. She thanked him then thanked him again as he passed her the gold hilted dagger she had dropped. But then she gasped in pain when she tried to stand, normally Yuugi would have forced her back down again but this was no place to be lying down, instead he moved under her left arm and helped to push her up onto her one good foot moving onto two legs himself in the process. She kept her arm around his small shoulders to keep her balance.

"What the hell do we do now then elf?" he asked cynically over the deafening sounds surrounding them. Shouting and screaming, the clashing of metal and the thuds and splatters of bodies and bodily fluids.

"We hold on, we survive and wait." She gasped breathlessly, her lilting voice laced with pain.

"Wait for what? The lot of them to drop dead?! We'd have more chance of this mountain caving in and crushing us!"

She looked at him with her large blue eyes and smiled weakly, "Don't worry, the prince is coming. The prince will save us."

He raised an eyebrow, was about to ask her what the fuck she meant but didn't get the chance when a pair of identical male goblins descended on them. He was forced to tug away from her grip in order to save himself and to get a better angle of attack. He dodged the swipe of the broadsword and spun, again on all fours, angling his tail so the arrow point swiped across his attackers neck, he missed by an inch and caught the collarbone instead. Again he felt his mind slipping away under the onslaught of smell and sound, adrenaline and hunger. He had to get away from Era before he lost it completely, he could feel it happening, the desire, the lust, the hot red mist fogging all sensibility. But at the same time he couldn't stray away. She was too vulnerable in her current state, she would be killed.

But he may end up killing her himself if this kept up and he lost it as completely as he had last time.

His claws filled up with the feel of living flesh, blood covered his skin, every sense he possessed heightened, sharpened as his body and mind focused on the one thing it truly desired. The hunger aching in his belly made it hard to fight against himself, made it so he began to run out of reasons why he couldn't just give in. None of these people had ever done anything for him. Even Era had been only vaguely helpful. But she was the first person he had ever met and had real contact with that he could remember, she wasn't much but when it came down to it she was all he had right now.

Very well, a snide part of his mind said, we just won't kill _her_.

He was finished with these two but adrenaline was still pounding within him, he wasn't ready to stop, wasn't able. A figure flashed past his vision, it wasn't Era and he found that was all that mattered as he leapt at it, not noticing if it was elfin or goblin, male or female.

The blood splattered against the sandy floor.

He couldn't hold back anymore.

* * *

Yuugi regained control again only when he found himself back in his prison cell. This time they hadn't removed the chains and so he knelt on the floor feeling as if the weight of the entire mountain rested upon his shoulders.

His body felt so much better now, with the life he had absorbed through their flesh it had managed to regenerate most of his tattered wing membrane. Strains and aches no longer hampered his movements and his belly rumbled comfortably full. But his content had come at a price that he wished others had not had to pay.

He hadn't killed just goblins out there. He shuddered at the vague fuzzy memory of what had happened when he lost it, regret and remorse filling him with its cold agony. Era had survived but that was not such a consolation anymore. She had watched him all that time. She hated him now, watching him from her cell opposite his again.

Yuugi shuddered to himself at the sight of her fearful disgust, he moved back into the corner of his prison. Were the cold chains coiled round him with the quality of the shadows of Hell. He didn't want to see that look anymore. Avoiding her gaze his eyes flickered up to the single bracket on the wall outside his cage, he concentrated on the flame, feeling that strange familiarity again. He blinked, and it went out.

Era gasped as Yuugi's side of the prison suddenly vanished into darkness due simply to the extinguished torch. No more then the faintest silhouette a sign that he still remained.

He sighed to himself in the darkness. He was beginning to realise that no matter what he did there was no way he could get through this world looking and acting as he did now. If only there was a way for him to look more like an elf. What had he done before he was imprisoned in that Hell for a crime he couldn't remember? He racked his brain for an answer, a memory, anything! But received nothing.

Yuugi looked at himself in the reflection of the crude water basin they had left him. Large purple eyes silted down the middle with black; sharp fangs that could never be mistaken for normal teeth; pointed ears that were shaped differently, and were even longer, then Era's. He glared at the reflection, broke the bowl. He closed his eyes and, for lack of anything better to do, concentrated on an image of himself like an elf. He liked the image, although he could imagine it being less mobile then his current body.

He gasped at the sudden feel of something so strange and so alien that he fell back onto the floor and into the puddle of water. The chains rattled. Steam hissed up around him at the natural heat of his body but he didn't notice because his tail was convulsing violently beneath him, his wings snapped into his back feeling like they were being sucked into his shoulder blades. He held his breath as the air was pulled from his lungs, bit his lip and made it bleed to stop from making a noise. His muscles twisted, knotted impossibly around shifting bones, the pain was intense but he had to stay silent, had to.

And then as suddenly as it started it was over. Whatever it was. He lay there gasping for a moment, feeling very acutely the distinct differences in his body. He tried to move his tail and to his distress felt nothing respond, the muscles that coordinated it were no longer there. He tried to use his wings to help push himself up from the floor but then noticed that he could only feel his back pressing against the rock beneath him his wings weren't there! With an effort Yuugi rolled onto his side, he could still feel that strange shifting inside his body but it didn't hurt as much now. He tried to stand on all fours but noticed immediately how uncomfortable it had become, how impossible to move properly.

Yuugi looked down into the distorted reflection in the puddle under him and nearly yelped at the sight that met him. It wasn't a demon that was staring back at him. But the Change hadn't finished yet. Even as he watched the slits in his eyes condensed into small round central dots. His ears shrunk until he couldn't see them over his hair. His sight and hearing blurred slightly, as did his sense of smell, becoming less potent.

Realisation struck him. He smirked darkly.

And distantly he heard the door swing open, but he immediately noticed that it was done with incredible care. The scent that reached his nose was pleasant and enticing, not the goblin reek, and the footsteps he heard were balanced and thought out, someone was using stealth.

Yuugi moved back into his chains a little more, hiding in the shadows as his body completed the Change. He faintly wondered what the other elves would think of this.

He looked down at his new hands in the darkness, a small smirk growing on his lips, no one would believe Era now when she told them he was a demon.

Era's words returned to him as the shadow of the approaching figure flickered closer. It was no goblin.

_"Don't worry, the prince is coming. The prince will save us."_

The prince wouldn't even know what he was saving.

* * *

"_Well either way there's nothing I'm going to do about it now, it took me forever to convince what's-his-name to make it."_

"_Like I said before, if it's big and expensive he's gonna like it. It's a royalty thing."_

"_Or a thief thing."_

"_Oh Ryou how you wound me."_

"_You know I could break it up and turn it into a kind of puzzle…"_

"_WHAT! Break up a perfectly good hunk of gold! Are you mad!" _

"_Thief thing."_

"_Alright, alright I'll leave it. But it's officially you're fault now if he doesn't like it."_

"_Trust me."_

"_Difficult."_

"_Speaking of that royal idiot (don't you growl at me Yuugi), don't you usually meet him around midnight?"_

"…_Yes. Why?"_

"_Because midnight was an hour ago."_

"…_SHIT!" _

**AN: **Well then. That was fun. Uploaded a second time to change a couple of things but I dare say it still has problems.

Next chapter they meet! Yay! Puzzleshipping here we come... err eventually. Falling in love isn't exactly on either of their 'to do' lists, but it'll happen wether they like it or not.

Please Review!


	5. Chapter Four

**AN:** Okay... I must have entered the twilight zone last night or something because I KNOW I put this online... I even remember the time... weird. Anyway swiftly moving on. Forgive any typos in this because I read through it all last night and removed a few but it seems like ffn didn't save them and I can't remember what I did nor can I be arsed doing it all again, this turned out twice as long as I both expected and planned but that's a good thing surely. They finally meet peoples!

Warnings: Again parts of this are not great for squeamish stomachs. Not so much violence this time as gentle gore... If such a thing actually exists.

**Firefly In Ice**

**Chapter Four**

_"You're going out again."_

"_Yes."_

"_I wish you would tell me where, my prince, my duties are to protect you."_

"_I need no protection."_

"_But it is night, sire, _they_ come out at night."_

"They_ also come out at day, if you opened you're eyes enough to look."_

"_Sire?"_

"_Nothing. Just thinking aloud. Are you going to stand aside or do I have to use force to leave my own room?"_

"_N-no. But please, allow me to escort you. My lips are sealed, I have told no one about your movements and I swear to tell no one where those movements take you."_

"_Fine! I do not have time for this, just follow, and I promise you if you make even a tiny mistake I will order your execution." _

"_Yes your highness."_

* * *

"Father, please. Listen to reason." Yami opened his arms, palms flat and facing the ceiling, to emphasise the stupidity of his father's argument.

"No. It is too dangerous, we don't even know for sure that the entrance to the mountain is on the eastern face." Hisashi, the king and Yami's father, flattened his palms on the table in front of him, unintentionally paralleling his son's gesture.

"But the scouts _saw_ the goblin's using it! What else could it be but an entrance!?" Yami's voice rose in his anger, practically shouting over the dinner table. "So what if it isn't a main door, all the better for getting in undetected."

Hisashi swallowed another bite of the roasted arctic hare on his plate, "We don't know where it leads. It could be a storage room for all we know."

"Which means we could still sabotage them, whether it be food or weaponry we could still cause damage to their infrastructure!"

The king stood up with force, the thrown-like chair scraping harshly on the stone floor, "And what good do you think that would do? So we sabotage a few barrels of water or rust their armour, how long would that slow them? If at all?"

Yami's mother, Shizuko, placed a slim hand on her bonded's arm, Hisashi calmed visibly and sat back down. She turned to Yami, looking at him worriedly from across the table. "Darling," he bristled angrily at his childhood name but she ignored him, "You must understand that we cannot afford to risk anything, especially now with our latest losses. What you are proposing is preposterous, the crowned prince spying on the enemy? Imagine what could happen. It would be impossible enough for a normal soldier."

"So you are suggesting we take this opportunity, the only lead we've had in months, and forget it?!" Yami was close to throwing his knife _and _fork at his parent's heads just to see if it knocked any sense at all into them. His knuckles were white, clenched around the fine silverware as if trying to snap them in half. But he forced himself to remain calm when talking, anger and actions meant little to his parents. Let words speak, and let them speak with clarity and thought. "I could take a couple of the Elite with me, turn it into a rescue mission along with the potential sabotaging possibilities. Our losses where heavy, you mentioned it yourself mother, but they could be at least a little elevated if we could free the captured."

"They could provide us with more inside information, even if we only freed one of them." They turned to look at the previously silent member of the dinner table, Yoko, Yami's grandmother and previous queen. The prince almost sighed in relief and gratitude, at least one member of his family possessed an ounce of sense. "I agree with Yami in that sense, we should do something to free them or find a way in at the very least, but that does not decrease the sheer level of danger you would be in." With her combined age and natural intelligence Yoko was not someone you took lightly, though her long hair had long turned silver-white with age her skin and eyes were as fresh and alive as they had always been, earning her the title of 'Great Mother' among the subjects of the kingdom.

"But mother surely… Yami cannot, my son cannot…" Shizuko pleaded with her mother-in-law imploringly, having lost her nephew in the war only weeks ago she had become ever more worried for her son's own safety.

"I never said that Yami should be the one to lead this operation, I simply said there was danger involved despite the intelligence behind the idea."

"What?" Yami's eyes widened in disbelief, "Grandmother this was _my_ idea, I'm the only one that could lead the Elite into something like this. You have to let me go!"

"Yami will you for once still your tongue and show respect!?" Hisashi snapped, gulping down the remains of his bright purple drink, made from extracting the spicy sweet juice from the extremely rare puniceus berry. A nearby maid immediately refilled his glass. "Listen to the wisdom of your elders as a future king should rather then dismissing them as the insignificant child you seem to believe they are!"

Yami opened his mouth in anger but bit back his retort, he wasn't getting anywhere, time for a new tact, "Then who would you send instead father, you know very well the council would elect one of their own and you know just as well that as genius as they may be they are incompetent as field leaders."

"We will send no one as of yet." Hisashi stated.

"First we must discuss this with the council, see if they can formulise a more sufficiently competent plan for this 'raid'." Shizuko chimed in, her voice naturally soft, quiet, but the sound of it did not calm Yami.

"The council will take an eternity, they always do! All they do is discuss!" He stood up and glared nastily at his father.

"Yami," the prince turned to his grandmother, "It would be best if we could wait for your grandfather to return before we attempt something this risky, Sugoroku may have found something to alleviate our difficulties without having to resort to a long shot."

"But it will be months before grandfather returns, all of the captured would be dead by then!" He couldn't quite believe what he was hearing, had the kingdom lost its reason as it had its strength?

"Not necessarily, my bet is that the goblin's will keep what they can as a way of bargaining with us later."

"They do not bargain! They kill! They aren't looking for an end to the war, they're looking for a way to annihilate us!" Yami looked at each of his family members in turn, fury making his eyes turn an even darker shade of red then was usual.

"Then why did they retreat from our latest battle without finishing us. They clearly would have had the upper hand if they had pushed forward yet they did not. They retreated, because they must want some form of victory from us. How would a massacre benefit them in the long run?" Hisashi matched his son's glare evenly with one of his own.

"There was a disturbance at their rear. Did you not see it father or where you too busy with your attempt at claiming glory? It was substantial enough for their defence to scatter uselessly, whatever it was that caused them to retreat was at the edge of those barren woods and I intend to find out what. This could be a key to our victory, it is a long shot that cannot be ignored in its potential." When he saw neither consent nor belief in their eyes he realised his frustration in a resounding "Argh!" snatched his glass from the table and stormed from the dining room, throwing the drink and smashing it on the floor on his way out.

If they wouldn't agree then he would do it himself!

* * *

The stench was overpowering. For a long minute Yami regretted persuading three Elite to come with him in the dead of night to investigate the Goblin mountain fortress. There had been nothing of interest around the woods that marked what Yami thought he remembered as the disturbance in the rear defence. This morning's blizzard had covered everything, not even the remains of the red and black blood that had painted the snow previously and so completely could be seen, buried and frozen under the fresh layer of hardening ice. He shuddered at the memory of it congealing together disgustingly on the legs and flanks of his poor mare. The only thing the Elite could pick up on was a few shallow claw marks gouged into tree trunks and the barely perceptible snapped twigs of the sparse bracken under the thick snow. The marks made a trial that lead about half a mile into the forest, and then stopped at a collection of mutilated Goblin corpses. Five of them in total, barely any flesh left to cling onto the mustard yellow bones, though the heads remained intact as did most of the organs and intestines, splattered across the floor and vegetation like a macabre scene of abstract art.

Even through the preserving bitter cold the open bowls of the dead creatures stunk from miles away. It would not be long before the bears and foxes found them, birds were already picking out the half closed, glassy eyes of the dead faces, some frozen with expressions of horror, others blank in fear.

Yami could feel the pain that had been suffered here. It was an elfin gift that could be shut off when needed, like in battle, where the pain suffered there would immobilise an elf with its intensity. The memory of it was burned into this forest and would be for a good few centuries. Agony seemed to ooze in waves off the trees and pool at his feet but it didn't feel quite the same as the pain from the battlefield. There was an undercurrent of something he couldn't quite pick up on, it was pain but it was something else too. Frowning he trudged through the snow, skirting the corpses in an attempt to find the source, if they could find it than perhaps they would find what had caused the disturbance. Yami was adept at this type of tracking. There had definitely been a sixth presence within this clearing and it had been the one to crash through the forest and into the battle, he was positive.

He stood for a moment and closed his eyes as the three Elite behind him the same, it was easier to sense with their eyes closed. Evoking the magic of his heritage Yami searched through the memories the forest would yield to him, it was jumbled and vaguely confusing, the images that flashed behind his closed eyelids were barely visible, like trying to see through amber yellow fog thicker than soup. But he barely made out, through the memories of mundane things such as a deer stripping leaves from a summer weed or a springtime butterfly being caught by autumn's icy grasp and freezing like an ice sculpture on the smoothed rock of a dried river bed, he could just grasp flashes of a strangely shaped figure, a shadow, as it massacred everything it came across, the oval shaped vision's edges blurred impossibly but Yami just managed to catch sight of the shadow against the snow, dark and ripping violently at the edges like nicotine coloured fire in the unstable vision.

He opened his eyes with a confused frown. Releasing the magic and the spirit of the wood as he thought. That figure had looked awfully like a creature of legend his history tutor had taught him about when he was young… but it couldn't be… they were extinct. Had been for millennia.

He shook his head and dismissed it, the spirits visions were known for being inaccurate simply because of how jumbled and incoherent they were. You could not, after all, expect an entity that was not truly alive or even corporeal to think like an intelligent creature. The forest was many things, not a single mind, and he was lucky to have gotten what he did from it. Glancing back at the Elite, elves of excellent standard in everything from warfare to healing, he knew from their expressions that they were having less luck than him.

Yami turned his head sharply as his senses caught a flicker of that presence again, the trail this time led a little to his right and deeper into the woods. Intrigued he followed it, moving quick before he lost it again. It was impossibly faint, emotion trails faded after a few hours and it had been over a day now, it was only Yami's natural talent that allowed him to feel it at all at such a late stage. That and the emotions had been strong enough to linger for longer. It was still too late, however, for him to identify the emotions felt to create the imprint. He only managed a few more feet into the woods before he lost the trail completely. Cursing Yami scoured the area in an attempt to pick it up again. But his attempts were useless, it was too old and the blizzard had not helped matters.

Growling in his anger he stalked back to where the Elite waited for him, a female and two males, two of them with jet-black hair, the third with sandy blond, curved scimitars at their hips. The blades imbued with ancient elfin that not even the royal family could read now. Their lost language, it died with the creatures that had become feared legends in their mythical children's stories. There was nothing else they could find here. He motioned for them to follow him and begin the arduous journey over snow and ice covered meadows to climb up the eastern face of the Grey Mountain.

* * *

"Your Highness. Hideki has found the way in, there were guards but only two, we have dispatched them already." Malik, the Elite commander and second in command of Yami's not entirely legal operation, bowed to him and the female Elite who had stayed with the price to watch their backs. Even they drew the line at letting the crowned price go first into very definite danger.

"Good," Yami nodded, they were all tired from the hike and climb up to where the scouts claimed the entrance to be. It had not been easy to avoid being seen and get up here at the same time. Nighttime was when the Goblins tended to be most active, but it was the only time Yami and his group could get out of the Kingdom unseen. He could just see the walls of the Great City, his home, glimmering in the moonlight in the distance; they were miles and miles away but the altitude allowed for an extensive view. An unexpected reprieve had come in the flow of Goblin movement a half hour ago that had allowed them to get so close. Yami could feel the excited atmosphere in the air as the Goblins had passed; clearly something was happening in their underground city that had drawn them all away.

The navy blue sky was clear and filled with tiny stars; it had caused the temperature to drop heavily and icy vapour to rise like silver mist from the mountain slopes, the temperature was as good a reason as any for the Goblins to be underground, though. They felt the cold, unlike the elves, and would freeze out here without many layers of protection. So perhaps that was the only reason they had mostly vanished.

But as for this being a storehouse entrance? If this wasn't one of the more important doors then Yami would remove his crown and declare himself a human, and _that_ wasn't going to happen any time in the next century.

Malik and the woman (he hadn't bothered to learn her name) fell into step behind him as he approached the entrance from above. They were joined by the third Elite, Hideki, stood crouched on the outcrop of grey frosted rock that hung above a hole in the mountains side, only about ten feet both wide and tall. 'Hole' was the best way to describe the entrance; it was nothing more then a roughly oval shaped gap in the rock, which lead into a downwards-sloping tunnel darker then the pitch of a clouded night. Impossible to see into. The enemy weren't stupid, despite their looks, this main door was hardly noticeable, the chances of being found minimal, the elfin scouts had been lucky. Two goblins, one on each side of the hole, were sat as if asleep on the floor. Yami could sense their recent deaths, though nothing else would indicate that they weren't simply resting, no arrows in their backs, no blood or sword wounds on the bodies, his company weren't called 'Elite' for nothing.

Swiftly dropping down from the outcrop with the silent, flawless grace of a feline the prince used his magic to heighten his senses, hearing and sight were the focus, he did not want to be able to smell anymore of the goblins than he already could by the door. It did little good with regards to the tunnel, complete dark was complete dark after all, and without light he hadn't a chance of seeing his way, he would have to risk a light. He could sense no one but his companions near him and so he was confident that they could reach the end of the tunnel without being seen. Searching momentarily through the small leather hip bag on his side Yami pulled out what looked like a star shaped ice shard. The frosted surface shimmered with a faint light of its own, no larger than his palm. He muttered a word to it in the ancient language, not understanding the word's meaning but knowing its effect. The shard began to pulsate just slightly in his hand, the light growing bright enough to see by in the tunnel, though still subtle enough to appear like moonlight. Yami nodded his consent to the Elite and walked first into the thick darkness of the tunnel.

It was shorter then expected. Ten minuets later found Yami crouching hidden behind an empty wooden barrel at the end of the tunnel, it had sloped steeply downwards, winding gently, until it ended at a crossroads marked by a single flaming torch, the light flickering strangely in its bracket, as if being pulled several ways at once. Yami beat down his curiosity, fire was not something you saw very often in the elfin kingdom, the only thing it was used for was cooking and weapon making, neither of which Yami had ever participated in. Elves never felt cold but they could feel heat and the sensation of it intrigued him, but this was not the time for that. Being so far underground made him uncomfortable, the rock walls felt damp and claustrophobic, the moisture from outside naturally being heated underground to make the air feel humid to someone who had never experienced warm air in his life.

Yami, stood slowly, not sensing anyone nearby, and glanced down the left and right turns the tunnel split into. All the way down their ears had picked up the sound of voices shouting, but it had been coming from far below them making them unable to identify the reason. The noises had stopped now though, which meant that whatever had been distracting the goblins had ended, meaning they had little time to get in and out unnoticed. They had to move fast but how when they didn't even know which way to turn? Yami closed his eyes in an attempt to pick up any elfin emotion trails, but couldn't feel anything over the overwhelming goblin presence, and evoking the mountain spirit would be foolish while stood in the middle of enemy territory. In the end Yami decided to head right, it slopped downwards with a steeper gradient then the left turn and he had a feeling that they needed to get deeper before they found the prison cells.

Dismissing the silver light of the star ice he placed it back inside his bag, the corridors were now lined with flaming torches and so there was no need for any extra light. Moving swiftly to counteract the growing feel of urgency as they sensed an increase in movement below them, they had met no one as of yet which caused the prince to become ever more suspicious, this had been far too easy. Darting from shadow to shadow and choosing whichever paths seemed to lead further down it didn't take the prince long to realise that they could become very easily lost, if they didn't start back before the goblins began swarming over the pathways again then even _he_ might not be able to pick up on their own emotion trails to lead them out. The corridors were becoming steadily wider and more substantial, cutting into the grey rock with deeper purpose, this gave him greater hope that they were heading the right way. Doors began appearing on each side of the corridors, rough stone entryways blocked by damp splintering wood that was deceptively strong, reinforced by dark iron brackets. Fear began to become recognisable in Yami's heart as they began to see goblin shadows flickering along the paths in small groups, his and the Elite's senses only just allowing them to choose the correct paths to use so they wouldn't be seen, it was becoming more and more reckless the deeper they went, the closer to the centre of the underground city the more goblins they felt and saw. At one point the four of them had been forced to break the rusted lock on one of the side rooms so they could hide inside from a passing troop of nearly twenty goblins. They had found themselves inside a cloak room, although it was more of an armoury, Malik had suggested donning goblin garments over their own to mask their scent. Yami had reluctantly agreed though it was quite the task to find clothes big enough to fit them, the goblins being generally smaller then the average elfin male. Now he was stood crouched behind a collection of food creates in a stinking goblin overcoat made of old bearskin, the white fur permanently dirtied brown with age and use.

The door in front of them was huge compared to the others they had seen and they realised they had finally found the entrance to the main city, it was open wide enough to allow them to see in and study the crowds that were moving around inside. There was no way they could get in this way but they knew from overhearing the goblins talk (though it took them a moment to decipher the gibbering language) that the prisons cells were somewhere under the main city.

Yami glanced at Malik, annoyed when the commander nudged him in the side to get his attention, to watch him gesture with a jerk of his head to a dark and narrow flight of stone stairs leading steadily upwards. He stared at it for a moment; there were hardly any emotion trails around it and those that were there were hours old, the stairs were barely used. He glanced back at Malik and nodded, understanding, to get under the city they would first have to go over.

* * *

Yami couldn't tare his eyes away from the sight that met him. Even the three Elite were staring in shock, despite their extensive experience. They had followed the narrow path, which had been utterly empty, to what looked like the highest tier of a coliseum, the structure was massive, far bigger then they would have believed the goblins capable of. Below them a small clean up crew were clearing the very fresh mess on the floor, a circular fighting arena. This had been what had drawn the goblins away. Now the room was all but empty, the golden sand that was covered in blood and corpses, most of them mutilated beyond recognition, being swept away to be replaced by fresh sand, the bodies and body parts being piled up in a corner to be burnt later. Yami felt disgusted at the sight and worried by the knowledge that there were a fair number of dead elves down there. He hoped there were still some left alive in the dungeons or their rescue mission would all be for nothing. The goblins truly were monsters that needed to be disposed of.

Spotting a way down into what was unmistakably the dungeons that was relatively hidden from view the prince reluctantly followed Malik down, they weren't going to allow him to go first. But when they reached one of the lesser entrances to a collection of prison cells, Yami now able to follow his senses because the emotion trails around this area were strong and clearly elfin, he pushed Malik out of the way. There was no way that he was about to let the Elite commander receive greater credit then him for _his_ idea.

He winced when the door creaked open on badly rusted hinges, Hideki had already dispatched of the guard and stolen his keys for the cells but that didn't mean they were safe. He stood still for a moment before the open door, waiting for something to happen, to be sure no one but the inmates had heard, when nothing did he took a confident step forward.

The others followed him. There was a long row of chiselled out deep alcoves in the walls on each side of the corridor, the alcoves blocked off by thick metal bars, this time un-rusted, to create prison cells. Between each cell a torch burned, well all but one further down that must have blown out. He scowled at the sight of the cells, there were only a few still occupied but he could feel the others had been too. They must have been killed in the coliseum, he cursed his father, had the king agreed to his clearly genius plan then they would have managed to get here in time to save those elves. He stalked down the corridor, confident they would not be found just yet, and left the opening of cells to the Elite. The imprisoned elves only gave quiet sounds of relief and gratitude as they saw them, both knowing that louder sounds would alert the guards and because they must have sensed them coming.

He stalled at the point where the single torch had been extinguished. And gave a rare smile and nod to Era on the other side, she was a well known lieutenant from the first regiment and so he was both pleased and unsurprised to see she had survived. She bowed tiredly to him, her injuries making her less flexible then usual. The prince glanced to the side dismissively, not expecting to see anyone in the opposite cell. But he did a double take at the sight of multiple chains attached to the wall and leading into the darkness at the back. He could see nothing but the presence he felt inside was unmistakeable. He frowned, it wasn't anything like what he'd felt before, it was definitely not elfin but it was anything but goblin. He heard the shifting of chain links from the shadows and turned so he was facing the cell bars full on.

"Come out of the shadows." He spoke commandingly.

"No sire," he heard Era gasp from behind him but dismissed it.

"Whatever you are show yourself or we will leave you here to fester."

The chains rattled again as something moved, and his eyes widened at the sight that met him.

It was a boy. A human child. Barely dressed in linen rags, filthy and coated in goblin and elfin blood, clearly freezing to death in this atmosphere. Yami knew very little about humans, only that they were quite weak creatures (although similar in shape to elves) who were very sensitive to temperature. They lived far to the south of the elfin northern kingdom and were very rarely seen so far north. The thought of the south confused Yami, a land without snow and ice sounded impossible to him, how could he live without being surrounded by something that had been there all his hundred and seventy years of life? Humans did not live for very long either, elves lived on average eight hundred years while goblins lived for just under four hundred, yet humans were lucky if they managed one hundred. Weak creatures indeed.

Era made a strange noise behind him but he once more ignored her. The boy was startling, it wasn't just his state of dress but everything about him surprised Yami. He hadn't known boys could look that pretty but he supposed that might be his inexperience with humans talking. His body was slim and delicate, his height, although diminutive, seemed well suited to him; his long slim fingers were twisting the hem of a destroyed linen sleeve anxiously. His hair surprised the prince the most though, his hair was utterly unique in the elfin world and yet this human's matched it surprisingly well, there was less blond in it and the red tips shimmered a dark purple instead but still… The boy's eyes caught him like a fly in honey, wide and liquid and filled with an innocence Yami could never have even imagined before, amethyst eyes that leaked pained tears from their corners.

"Help me," the child muttered so quietly, and sounding so broken, "please."

Yami drew in a breath at the voice, so sweet in its pain. And gestured for Malik to throw him the prison keys, he caught them smoothly without even having to watch their trajectory and unlocked the door with the same motion. He stepped inside.

The human took a shaking step towards him under the weight of the chains.

"Your highness, no, it's a trap!" Era hissed desperately. He frowned to himself at her words, what was wrong with her? It was just a human, a child at that, and he clearly needed help.

Yami helped to support the little human child as he stumbled, injured and confused and so very pitiful. "Where did they take you from?"

The boy looked at him with those bright pretty eyes, "Wha – excuse me?"

He sighed, a little exasperated, "The goblins. Which human town or village did they kidnap you from?"

The boy blinked for a moment, his lips forming what he thought was the word 'human?' before he spoke in a confused way, "I-I don't know. I just woke up here. I think they must have hit me on the head or – or something because I vaguely remember a forest but then nothing until just two days ago."

The Prince suppressed his annoyance, great just great, a human with amnesia. Just what the escape party needed. But they couldn't leave him here, not and survive the guilt of _knowing_ what would happen to him here, a boy as soft and rare as this would be thoroughly used and broken before he was killed.

He helped the boy to stand on his own and hated the pity that made his chest hurt at the sight of those harsh chains and shackles biting into the poor child's white skin, he scowled at the boy who was staring up at him openly, absolutely no respect. Who _didn't_ know who he was? The human should be on his knees begging and thanking him for his selflessness in helping him. Amnesia be damned.

There was no other key on the guards ring for the shackles and Yami knew they had no time to waste looking for one, the captured elves were already free and being helped with their injuries and they had no idea how many guards there could be out there or when they made their rounds. He would have to break the chains. Quickly scanning the length he found what looked like the weakest link near the boy's left wrist, gripping onto the metal he concentrated on a different form of magic, this one much more instinctual then his sensing magic, and watched as the chain link frosted over in thick ice. He heard the boy gasp and smirked smugly in pride at having impressed him. When it was brittle and weakened even further by the ice colder then any nature could create by itself Yami pulled his dagger from its sheath with a sharp jerk, the runes imbued onto its surface glowed in response to his touch and magic, and brought it down hard onto the frosted chain link. The ice shattered under the combined elfin magic and his daggers potency and with it the metal splintered and broke as if it were rotten wood.

It confused him that a human child could be so covered in blood and be held down by such excessive restraints. The goblins certainly didn't want to let this one go. He wondered about the extra, seemingly useless chain on the floor, the shackle still locked, and about the loop of chain around the boy's chest that he could easily step out of. But he dismissed the thoughts as the human spoke to him in that incredibly soft voice of his.

"Who are you?"

Yami continued to work on the other chains, it was only a shame that he could not unlock the shackles; they would have to remain for now. "A Prince." His tone was annoyed and dismissive, he did not look at the boy who by all rules had no right to be speaking to him, and so he missed the dark scowl that momentarily crossed the boy's innocent features at the words. It took only a few more minutes with Yami's skill before the boy was free to move and he surprised Yami with how steady he walked, despite his obvious discomfort with something, pain he supposed.

Era rushed up to them, her ankle almost fully healed, and Yami raised his eyebrow at how she skirted the boy nervously, throwing him suspicious glances. The human just blinked up at her, as if nonplussed. The group of elves, now nearly twenty of them including himself and the Elite, stood on guard by the entrance waiting for them.

"Sire we cannot take this child, he is dangerous, he will kill us!" She whispered loudly, fiercely.

"Era, this child is a child. A human. How is he dangerous?" This was beginning to grow tiresome.

"He is no human. He is a beast, my prince, a demon!"

Yami's other eyebrow rose to meet the other, "A demon, Era? You are aware there hasn't been a living demon for millennia, they are extinct, and this child is not a demon."

"But I saw him! Wings and tail and everything! I spoke to him!" She turned to the other elves and asked the ones that had fought, "You saw him didn't you? In the coliseum! How he killed!"

A soldier shook her head, "I was too busy fighting to stay alive to notice mush else, Miss."

Another soldier next to her, a male, agreed. The rest of the party following suit. Era growled at them for disagreeing with her and turned to glare openly at the boy, who shrunk visibly into the prince's side to hide in fear.

Yami turned his head to look down at him, though he was only a little less then a head shorter then the prince, "Well child? Are you a demon?"

The boy looked at him and blinked, "No, sir, I have never seen a demon in my life. I don't really know what they are. Perhaps if they are extinct as you say then maybe she hit her head in the fight and mistook a goblin for one."

Era bristled in rage but the argument had no time to develop any further for Malik turned from the door with an urgent expression and said quietly, but loud enough for everyone to hear, "Sire, there is someone coming. I think the goblin king is here!"

The room fell deadly silent in terror, the king would have an entourage with him and there was no way they could fight through that without alerting the entire city of their presence.

"Everybody move now! Follow Malik!"

* * *

_"Sire!"_

_"What!"_

_"…N-nothing. I just thought – "_

_"Well don't think! It is not your place and rarely does anything of worth come out of that mouth!"_

_"But I thought I… I thought I saw something just then."_

_"A bird no doubt, or a fox hunting a bird."_

_"No, bigger. Sire this is a dangerous place. These woods are known for – "_

_"Living Shadows. Yes I am aware of the myths. But they are myths not reality; those villagers' tales will not influence my reason. You will stop here."_

_"What?"_

_"Did you truly think I was going to allow you to follow me the whole way? I am not such a fool. You are lucky I have allowed you to come this far simply to prevent you worrying unnecessarily."_

_"Worrying unnecessarily? My Prince, with all due respect you are entering the most dangerous forest in the kingdom!"_

_"Only made so by the stories that surround it. There is nothing in here that is more dangerous then anywhere else. Stay here!"_

_"But – "_

_"Stay! I am late enough as it is."_

**AN: **Nyeh I don't know if I like it, felt like it dragged to me. Oh good news, I turned eighteen last staurday (and is still recovering from the resulting party. You know it's an eighteenth when an ambulance is called, you wake up as drunk as you were when you fell asleep, and you're mum is yelling at you for the state of the house) and I now have my own laptop. Whoot! Updates should be faster now, hopefully, though you may have to wait until after the summer exams. I have my college finals to study for.

Review Please!


	6. Chapter Five

AN: I'm sorry if this is moving too slowly for everyone but I am planning for this to be a decent length fic, it will heat up soon enough in the romance department, but it does also have other aspects from romance so give me some leeway here. The puzzleshipping, although it most certainly does begin in this chapter, won't really kick off for about two chapters (they need that time to realise the reason they can't get each other out of their heads is because of blossoming love –slylaugh-). So please be patient, now that they've met it shouldn't take too long. Although the lust is going to come before the love if you know what I mean.

**Firefly In Ice**

**Chapter Five**

_"Please be here, please be here, please be here. Atemu?… Ouch! Ah shit, who the fuck put that there! Atemu!"_

"_You're so accident prone it's untrue."_

_"Atemu. Thank the Realms, I thought I might have missed you."_

"_You have kept me waiting quite some time."_

"_I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I got caught up in something and completely forgot the time. Sorry."_

"_You forgot about me?"_

"_No! Never! How could – Please don't –"_

"_Yuugi shush, calm yourself. I'm just teasing."_

"_Oh… well then in that case…"_

"_Hey. Where are you going? Yuugi wait, hey! I'm sorry I didn't mean to – huh? Wha – mumfh – hmmm." _

"_Heh. Don't you just love revenge?"_

"_You little – ack ahh – I'm royalty you can't – yeah just there, just – molest me like this – ahh!"_

"_I'm just teasing Atemu, calm yourself. Lower?"_

"_Yes, yes. No wait – hmmm – I'm going to – to the left – have you punished – ack – for this – ahh."_

"_Then punish me please. Then maybe I'll give you a treat, if you're a good boy hmm?"_

_------------------------------------------------------------------------------_

The prince was an oddity. Or at least, he wasn't what Yuugi had expected. The word 'prince' had Yuugi's mind conjuring up images of a tall, kind, handsome stranger on a white stallion with a long cloak and a sword at his hip.

The elfin prince wasn't any of that. Well actually, no, Yuugi corrected himself, he was handsome, oh yes very handsome, but none of the rest. A confident arrogance poured off him in waves, he believed he could do anything probably, so there was very little kindness in those deep red eyes, his poise was as if he expected the world to worship him and he seemed vaguely disgusted with Yuugi's presence. He wasn't tall either, only average, perhaps a little below that as well, still he was taller then Yuugi but that wasn't hard. There was no stallion and the only thing at his hip was a leather bag and a mean little glowing dagger. Yuugi was severely disappointed with the lack of cloak, instead the prince and his entourage seemed to prefer garments of stinking animal fur.

What an obscure race the elves were.

And humans? What the fuck were humans?! Just when he thought he had the current dominant species worked out they throw in another one! Well apparently he looked 'human' now and thus that was what they thought he was, he'd have to go along with that. Perhaps it was a good thing they didn't think he was an elf; he didn't think he'd ever be able to fit in with these people. Elfin magic was certainly interesting though. They could summon ice out of air! Well Yuugi had seen the prince do it so he supposed they could all do it. So they could manipulate an element too… opposite to his own, that much he remembered. Ice, water and fire did not get along well together. Perhaps then, if they could summon ice, he could summon fire out of air? It was an interesting idea.

But now was not the time to try it.

The prince was powerful and he was surrounded by soldier elves, if they found out what he was they could easily lock him back up while in this state. Yuugi glanced for a moment at his bare feet as he walked out of the cell, he was certainly different looking now, the shackles were still around his wrists and ankles like bracelets, the one that had been around his tail had fallen off obviously, the few chain links still connected to the cuffs clinked as he moved but other then that he was free. For a moment though he was worried, he was a lot weaker in this state, a lot more awkward and less flexible, he longed for the familiar weight of his wings on his shoulders and the powerful click of his claws on the floor as he walked. He worried if he would ever be able to take on the demon shape again. Yuugi didn't have a clue how this had happened, he had even less of a clue on how to reverse it.

He shivered. This place was freezing; he hadn't felt it as much before but now…

"He is no human. He is a beast, my Prince, a demon!"

Yuugi bit his lip in aggravation, if Era wasn't careful she'd blow his cover. He'd admit it was humorous the way she skirted him in fear but saying he'd kill them all was a bit much, he'd had more than his fill for the moment and he wasn't injured as much as before so he didn't need to kill any more people. He didn't want to. He barely stopped himself from growling and saying 'I thought we'd had this conversation before, I'm not a beast!'

The only part of the prince's retort he caught was, "Demons are extinct."

It felt as if his heart stopped for a moment. Demons were extinct? His entire race was dead? But that couldn't be, he was stood right here as living proof! But… then again… he didn't know how long he had been trapped in that hell, he had no memory of what had happened before and no knowledge of what had happened during his imprisonment. For all he knew the prince was right. He could very likely be the last of his kind. Now truly homeless and completely alone. The words being spoken above him were like an annoying buzz in his ear, his surroundings suddenly seemed far less real. If what the prince said was true then what was there left to fight for? What was there left for him here? Had he escaped hell only to be greeted by an even colder reality? Grief threatened to overwhelm him but he pushed it brutally away, there would be time to mourn later, he was still fighting for his life.

He was brought back to reality when the prince turned to him; he felt a strange stirring at the sight of those eyes, as if they should be familiar to him. "Well child? Are you a demon?"

Well he wasn't a child to begin with. He was probably older then all the elves in this room put together. But he wasn't going to say that if they were going to get him out into the open air again, he pitched his voice again into a sweet, almost feminine, whisper "No, Sir, I have never seen a demon before in my life. I don't really know what they are. Perhaps if they are extinct," he ignored the stab of pain, "as you say then maybe she hit her head in the fight and mistook a goblin for one."

Despite all of his arrogance and rouge-like charm the prince was ridiculously easy to manipulate if you knew which angle to work from, he just had to bat his large eyes and the elf was putty in his claws, he could tell by the slight red that graced the prince's cheeks. Yuugi bit his lip again in what was becoming nervous habit; there it was again, that feeling of familiarity! He had _known_ before he even did it that batting his eyelashes would get that reaction from the prince. But they'd never met before, he knew that too.

Another question he had no answer to. This was becoming tiresome.

He gasped slightly when he felt a strong hand take hold of his arm and tug him sharply forwards. Yuugi blinked up at the prince as he was dragged to the front of the room, wondering why this commandingly aloof elf was sinking so low as to touch him. Not that he thought of himself as so low, he had just assumed that was what the prince thought of him.

The prince gave him an irritated sidelong glance, "Pay attention!"

Then Yuugi noticed the heavy tension in the room, so thick it could be tangible, and the way they were all staring at the prince as if waiting for orders. He was glad they weren't staring at _him_; he had found he hated being the centre of attention. Though he noticed Era giving him the occasional angered glance, as if to say that she wouldn't rest until she'd proven that he was some kind of monster.

"Malik, you will have to go first. The rest of you follow in rows of two, do not break rank unless you have to, do not let anything slow you down, and do not put everyone else in danger because you where the one to make a mistake and reveal us." The prince spoke fast, his words clipped sharply.

"Yes, Sir." Spoke an elf with wild sandy hair Yuugi assumed to be Malik, an assumption that was proved correct as the blond stepped closer to the door, eased it open and slipped out without a second glance.

Swiftly the remaining elves, which had already organised themselves, followed him in a line. The prince turned to Yuugi and whispered harshly, "Stay in sight! We will not return to collect any unfortunate stragglers."

Yuugi nodded, feeling an excited anticipation bubbling up from what he knew should have been fear. For some reason he wasn't scared. He knew that, somehow, an age ago, he had faced worse. Much worse. And this handsome prince with his little toy army, the apparent fearsome presence of the goblins breathing like shadows down the backs of their necks, and whatever reason it was they where at war, meant nothing to him. Like a passing phase. He wasn't apart of this, and because of that they couldn't truly touch him. Maybe he was being arrogant, overconfident, but that was just what he felt like, a passer by of this silly little scuffle between races. This was more interesting then frightening.

The prince forcefully steered him out of the prison room, making Yuugi realise he had zoned out again. The cold was affecting his body, making it shiver and his attention span wander. He rubbed his arms in an attempt to warm up and watched the other close and lock the prison door behind them silently and swiftly, using a large key left hanging on a rusted hook by the door. Before rushing after the line of elves disappearing up a narrow flight of stairs well hidden in the shadowy corner. Yuugi hastened to follow, just because he didn't feel like he was in any particular danger didn't mean he fancied getting lost underground while in this weakened body.

He glanced back just as he was about to take the first cold stone step, in the flickering light of flaming torches he could see the shadows of goblin's about to turn the corner into their corridor. Yuugi felt a thrill of excitement as he dashed up the stairs just as the first goblin came into view. Another second or two and they all would have been captured.

This whole thing was turning out to be kind of fun.

He managed to catch up with the prince at the top of the long set of winding stairs, the elves where even faster then he thought. Finding himself entering an equally narrow walkway that was partially open on his right side. The rock there came up to his elbow, thin pillars of stone held up the top, like tiny replicas of cathedral windows. The floor undulated slightly and gave off the stale air feeling that it was rarely used.

Yuugi glanced out of the arches to find them at the very top of the coliseum, the stands stretched out below them for what felt like miles, the oval of sand that was the battle arena suddenly looked much smaller and less significant then it was.

Yuugi shivered slightly, looking away. He didn't want to think about that place.

He followed the long line of elves for what felt like hours, occasionally looking behind him to see if there was anyone behind. He wondered what was taking so long for the goblins to realise they were gone. They had passed over and through a thick wall of rock, their pathway seeming to be one of the two ways through besides the large main doors on the ground floor, below them now was a strange assortment of buildings and shacks. This space was even larger and more open then the coliseum had been and Yuugi realised that the dirty buildings made of wood, stone and a strange hardened black substance was the goblin city. It was a sprawling mass of confusing streets and oddly shaped houses and official buildings thick with the swarming masses of goblins living their everyday lives.

It was strange to see this side of the battle. The goblins that weren't directly involved and still the ones that were just living their obscurely structured lives in amongst their community that had nothing to do with war. Yuugi tilted his head, noticing that the dots that were the goblins in the far below city were moving in a relatively calm and random manor, which could only mean that their vanishing act had still been undetected.

But how? The goblins had just been about to enter their prison room, he had been sure of it. Yuugi turned his gaze to the back of the prince's head, had the elf done something to ensure their escape without him noticing? It seemed impossible but…

No sooner had this thought crossed his mind then an ear-splitting noise sounded from the top of a rather shaky looking tower in the far distance of the goblin city. It sounded much like when a gong is hit, only it went on for much longer then it should. Yuugi could only stand there with his teeth clenched and his hands over his ears as he tried to block out the terrible sound. And only when someone grabbed his arm and threw him forward did he realise this meant their escape attempt had been discovered.

Yuugi stumbled and broke into a run when the prince let go of him, following the other elves with the prince behind him as they dashed the rest of the length of the pathway and began to descend into a sharply spiralling stone staircase just as narrow as the one they walked up. Yuugi paused for a moment wondering how he was going to be able to run down there without slipping and tripping everyone up but knowing there was no other way short of being locked back up he took the first step just as the gong faded and the sound of loud goblin voices and the clattering of metal as the soldiers prepared themselves for battle floated harshly upwards from the city.

Yuugi reached the bottom of the staircase with grazed skin and bruises all over him, his bare feet beginning to bleed painfully. It had been pitch black in there but the elfin prince behind him had kept him moving, Yuugi wondered why the prince seemed to be so hell bent on protecting him when only minutes ago he was warning him to keep up or get lost.

Perhaps he was more then Yuugi had first given him credit for. He seemed cold, and his words were like ice shards, but his actions seemed to disprove that. A part of him seemed to know the elf was warmer then that.

The elves gathered in a small group at the bottom of the stairs, seeming lost. Yuugi glanced around and noticed a set of humungous wood doors set into the stone, opened a crack and showing the city behind it. The huge space beyond was in such direct contrast to the low, narrow passageways he had been in that Yuugi wondered if the great caverns had truly been natural and the goblins had only tunnelled into the mountain to reach them but nothing more.

"What are you all doing!" The prince was angry again, "Keep moving! Where is Malik!"

At once the blond general was stood by the prince's side and spoke before his commander could say anything more, "Your Highness you must go first. You will be in too much danger at the back now they are actively searching for us," there was a pause during which the prince seemed highly likely to say something scathing but Malik said first: "And you are the only one that can lead us out of here with any speed, we cannot evoke the tracking spell as assuredly as yourself."

Yuugi blinked as he witnessed their exchange, now if he wasn't very much mistaken (and he didn't think he was), he would say that Malik had just performed an act of appeasement. The prince was clearly going to reject the commander's idea of leading the group but had stopped when Malik began talking about his skill. Yuugi watched the look of smug victory as it momentarily flickered over the prince's face. Surely not…

He raised and eyebrow as the prince gave an assenting nod, his shoulders stiff as he walked towards the front of the group.

"You have got to be kidding me." Yuugi whispered under his breath, muttering to himself, "Talk about ego."

A sharp exhale of breath made him look back up at Malik, and he could have sworn that the elf had just stifled a laugh. But he was given no more time to contemplate this because the prince had noticed Yuugi hadn't moved, leaned back through the crowd, and yanked him by the arm again up to the front.

"I thought I told you to stay close." He hissed, red eyes narrowed in annoyance.

Yuugi couldn't help the cheeky retort that escaped him, "You said stay in sight, I wasn't aware that was elfish for 'stick to me like glue'."

Yuugi saw the sudden pale red that flushed into the prince's cheeks and almost had the chance to enjoy the embarrassment caused by his accidental slip out of character but the moment was stopped short when the great doors to their right began to creak open, scraping heavily against the damp floor.

The prince was suddenly running, pulling Yuugi along with him by the collar of his tunic at a pace he thought he would never be able to hold in this human body. Good god these elves were fast. Yuugi glanced back as they ran glimpsing the last of their group, Malik and a young woman, fending off the goblins that had swarmed out of the partially open doors with screeches that alerted the others to their find.

Yuugi found himself hoping they would get out alive. Perhaps they were all in a lot more danger then he had first thought. After all, it was this tiny party of battle worn elves against an entire rested goblin army in their own territory. Yuugi didn't want to even think about calculating the odds of victory.

Through tunnel after narrow tunnel Yuugi and the rest of the party followed the prince, they didn't stop for breath, didn't even pause when they came to forks in the path. Perhaps Malik had been right about asking the prince to lead, he certainly seemed to know where they were going. And constantly the screeches of the goblins shadowed them, coming from behind them, around them. For the first time Yuugi felt a little frightened, he really didn't want to go back to captivity and the quality of which the goblin's voices seemed to echo and surround them reminded him so forcefully of the Shadows as they tried to drag him back to Hell that the resulting adrenaline made it easy to keep up with the elves pace, whereas before the prince had to keep pulling and dragging him forward to keep him moving.

They turned a final twist in their steadily inclining path and the sight that met Yuugi made him almost cry in relief. The exit was just ahead of them. A small open doorway to freedom. He could see the pale light of the moon lighting the ground outside with a silvery opalescent sheen, a glimpse of the night sky thick with stars, he could smell the frigidly fresh air and feel it on his skin.

Distantly Yuugi wondered if it was possible for this human body to survive in such cold for very long. He didn't want to escape only to find himself in an even worse position. Yet he still didn't have a clue as to how he became what he currently was. What if he _couldn't_ reverse it?

Determinedly pushing those thoughts away Yuugi pushed his body the final stretch and burst out into freedom just behind the prince.

Only to run headlong into a hoard of goblins.

"Shit!" The prince almost back peddled straight into the group behind him as the elves almost pilled into each other due to the sudden halt of the ones in front. Had this been a slightly less life threatening situation Yuugi would have laughed, the sight was quite comical, but right now he was content to hide behind the prince and pretend he wasn't here. He wasn't sure what the goblins would do if they saw him. After all he had just slaughtered a coliseum full of mostly their people, not to mention what he had done to their army before that, granted he wasn't entirely in control on either counts but they weren't to know that. The probability was that they wouldn't notice him, or if they did then they wouldn't recognise him. He doubted any of the goblins that managed to get a close look at him (other then the king) were skill alive to tell the tale.

"They were waiting for us!" a young woman to Yuugi's left shouted above the goblin's noise, she sounded anything but calm.

"There aren't that many," Yuugi looked up at the new voice, a male wearing the same outfit as Malik, the prince and another woman that had come with them appeared at their side, "They knew we were making our way to one of the exits but they don't look entirely prepared to see us here."

Yuugi looked again at the goblin hoard, they did, in fact, look rather unprepared, about thirty of them clustered around the path. The goblins must have expected them to use a different path, either that or they were taking longer to mobilise then Yuugi expected.

"If we move fast enough we should be able to fight our way through before reinforcements come." The prince spoke, he turned to Malik who was holding a blood-encrusted sword out to him, and raised an eyebrow.

Malik gave a feral grin, "Stole them from the ones coming out of the city, there should be enough for most of us."

The prince nodded, noticing that the goblins had fanned out during their pause, probably believing they had the elves trapped they had surrounded the entrance in a semi-circle to try and keep them in until reinforcements came, thirty goblins against twenty exhausted elves may sound like a comfortable advantage but if the goblins had learnt one thing during the war it was that you never judged them by their appearances. Elves were viciously skilled fighters.

The prince turned to Yuugi, who was still hiding behind him and not having to entirely fake the terrified meek little boy expression, and said in a surprisingly warm voice, "Stay behind us, make sure the goblins don't see you, they will glimpse their chance through you and not hesitate to use it."

Yuugi wasn't entirely sure what that meant but nodded anyway, far too happy with such a good excuse to hide. And no sooner had the prince looked away and given a silent signal to the others to charge forward then Yuugi found himself in the middle of what currently felt like a cataclysmic battle.

The fight he was unprepared for, but he could handle, as the elves rushed passed him to aid the prince and Malik, it was the sudden pain shooting up from his chest that immobilised him.

Yuugi gasped, clutching the linen above his pounding heart, what the hell was this? It felt like… it felt like anger. Hate. Revenge. Wrath.

But it wasn't coming from him.

He gasped again at the sharp shooting pain that burned from his chest all the way up to his ears and a pounding began behind his eyes. His hands flew up to his ears as his hearing and sight blurred, finding them long and pointed again. An agonising pulling and shifting had started in his hands and he pulled them back to look, yelping at what he saw, his nails were sharpening and thickening, looking as if he hadn't cut them in months, a mid-way point between human hands and demonic claws.

He was changing again.

But… how?

The sharp smell of fresh blood hit his nose. His stomach rumbled in a way that made him feel sick with himself. Was the blood changing him? Was it hunger that drove him to change?

And then he remembered the red-hot emotions that were still flowing over him from… the others. The goblins and elves. These feelings, this hate, this desire for revenge, twisting together to form a feeling of wrath deeper and more dangerous then he could ever remember experiencing were being absorbed by him. Unknowingly his body was absorbing these emotions like air.

Yuugi realised then that it wasn't the blood that was affecting him. It was the _aggression_ that was causing his change. The anger and wrath that was pouring off the two sides in waves was affecting him and causing that snake inside his body to respond. And when he… when he first changed he hadn't been feeling any of that, he'd been feeling regret and sadness, wishing for a change in his mind. Was _that_ how it worked?

Another shooting pain burned its way through his legs, he felt a sudden weakness in his knees and collapsed against the stone behind him. He hadn't moved since the prince had vanished and he knew, with a certainty that scared him, that he had to get out of here before something even worse happened then a fight with goblins. If he lost it here…

Then the elfin kingdom would be short one heir to the throne.

He glanced to his left, searching desperately for an escape, and his heart leapt at the sight of a small gap between two mounds of rock, like tiny hills on a huge mountain, beyond them there was a dark twisting path that curled around the mountain's summit (they were so close to the top already).

Taking in a large breath of air and bracing himself, Yuugi ran towards it. Vanishing down the path and thanking whoever would listen that no one was blocking his way and that they were all too preoccupied with fighting.

In the far distance Yuugi managed to catch the prince's voice, "The boy! Where is the boy?!"

He cringed guiltily but there was really nothing he could do, he had to get out of here. Yuugi gasped and collapsed against the rock, the mounting agony ripping through him as he finally surrendered to the transformation. His skin seemed to stretch and split where his wings and tail broke through, bone and muscle growing like abnormalities as they formed the extra three limbs. Shifting as his body structure changed. The pain was otherworldly and Yuugi bit his lip, puncturing the skin with his new fangs, and let loose a muffled scream as something red hot and molten bubbled up inside and spread through his veins like heated poison until with a sudden gasp it was over. The pain faded to only a shadow, leaving him exhausted and panting, curled in on himself on the ground and wondering what on earth he had done to deserve such punishment.

Gritting his teeth Yuugi pulled himself to his feet with the help of the rock and shook himself as the last of the pain faded away and he was left to reacquaint himself with his natural body. Yuugi stretched, feeling more powerful muscles tightening and relaxing pleasantly, and glanced around him, the night was clearer to him now his eyesight had sharpened and the landscape looked suddenly beautiful and alive. The urge to finally experience it properly overcame his desire to see what was happening back up the path.

But just as he took his first step towards freedom a glint caught his eye and he stopped just in time for a short black arrow to shoot within a hair's width of his head and embed itself, wobbling slightly, in the rock beside him. Yuugi span round, a collection of six goblins were stood just a little behind him, armed with bows and aiming their arrows directly at him.

Apparently he hadn't been entirely undetected in vanishing.

"Wonderful," he muttered, turned tail, and ran in the opposite direction. He didn't want to fight them now. They took chase, following him as he followed the curve of the path until the side to their right vanished, a sharp drop to the valley bellow, they were running along a narrow ridge that seemed to be taking them in a wide circle around the mountain peak, at this rate they would find themselves back where they started. In the middle of a battle.

Yuugi realised just how far they had come when the ridge widened out, and suddenly ended at a small plateau. A steady incline to the left, a strange long mound-like formation, was the only thing separating them from the fight on the other side. It was that proximity that immobilised Yuugi, the scent of fresh blood bombarding his senses like a tidal wave made his vision swim and his stomach contract. That snide little voice telling him that all he really wanted to do was let go.

Another arrow fell just far of his foot and in his half-coherent state didn't notice it until he had tripped on it. Yuugi fell to his hands and knees, digging his claws into the floor to try and resist the temptation of the beating hearts, fighting to remember that they were filled with life and not just convenient supplies of food. He snarled, damming those instincts to Hell and back, he had thought he had them under control!

Footsteps alerted him to the reality that he was surrounded, he glanced up and saw with a pang of fear that they where all aiming their arrows at the exact points where it would hurt most. They weren't going to kill him, not yet, they were going to paralyse him first and then do only god knew what else before killing him.

He really didn't want that fate to be his.

'Surely,' he thought, 'if I only kill these six it'll be all right. I can control who I kill cant I? I'll be able to stop before I do any worse. And they _are_ planning on killing me!'

The snake rose, and his vision was obscured by blood.

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"_We _really _need to try that again."_

"_Hmmm."_

"_Although the healers may have to ask were these claw marks came from…"_

"_Hmmm… What? Oh shit I'm sorry. I didn't – I wasn't thinking."_

"_Clearly. Not complaining, kind of a turn on actually."_

"_Atemu!"_

"_Heh heh. You need to get that blushing problem looked at."_

"_M'gonna have to discipline you again aren't I?"_

"_Please do. But the question is have I been good enough for that treat you mentioned before…"_

"_What? Oh yeah. It's the reason I was late actually."_

"_It better be good then."_

"_Don't make me more nervous then I already am."_

"_Oh love, I'm sure if it's from you I'll love it… is it in here?"_

"_Uh-huh… it's kinda different but that's what I was going for. Apparently it's going to be part of a set. I wont be able to get hold of them though, this was the first and it was hard enough to get thank you very much."_

"_Yuugi…"_

"…_Do you like it then?"_

"_It's the most amazing thing I've ever seen. But what is it?"_

"_Magic. Magic talisman, you wear it like a necklace and it protects you, not quite figured out how yet…"_

"_I'll treasure it forever. Just like I'll treasure you forever."_

"_Not to ruin the romantic mood but you need to work on those one-liners Ate'."_

"_Oh, screw you." _

"_No thanks, still recovering from ten minutes ago, tomorrow maybe?"_

"_Tomorrow."_

_-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------_

AN: "Sharply spiralling stone staircase" -laugh- now THAT is an alliteration.

Thanks to SuzaShizune and moonlit dew for the last couple of kicks that got my lazy arse into action! This was originaly going to be over 10,000 words long but I cut it in half after realising that was a bit too much for one chapter and it would just drag more then anything else. So the format of the next two chapters has been changed completely due to that. Which hopefully means they will be out sooner then later. Hopefully.

Review Please! (They make me work faster - and god knows I need to work faster then I am.)


	7. Chapter Six

**AN: **OMG! Is this... yes it is! Another update! And you didnt have to wait three to four months for it! The sky must be imploding in on itself. Enjoy before your little heads are crushed in the resulting colapse of the universe!

**Firefly In Ice**

**Chapter Six**

"_You are late, my son."_

"_Forgive me Father."_

"_Why do you present yourself so far into the evening when you knew full well what your Mother was planning?"_

"_I… It slipped my mind, Father, I meant no disrespect."_

"_Yet it seems far too convenient that you forgot this night, out of all of them, does it not?"_

"_Father, you appear to be suggesting that I am avoiding my duties."_

"_Yes, Atemu, that is what I was suggesting. And regarding that, it is why I am going to speak to you tonight."_

"_But Father - " _

"_Silence! The King is speaking. Now listen to me son, I will not have you committing such acts against the glory of our royal blood."_

"_Su-such… acts, Father?"_

"_Yes Atemu, your little nightly walks are becoming common knowledge among the subjects. Such uncouth behaviour, I will not stand for it!"_

"_They are only walks, Father, I enjoy the night, and they help me to relax."_

"_Nonsense! What have you to be stressed about?"_

"_Well h - "_

"_Never mind, my point is that it appears to the citizens that you are seen skulking so often at night that the rumour of a _fling _with a commoner has spread. A romantic affair! I hope, for your sake Atemu, that these rumours are false."_

_---- _

Yami raised his sword, blocked, parried, slashed, barely even having time to check that the goblin had fallen before he was forced to block another blow. They were coming thick and fast, the world was a blur of faces and bodies and flashing steel, of roars and bellows and clashing weapons like thunder.

Another goblin fell before his sword and he was given a moment to glance around, the battle was fierce but there was already an end in sight, they had almost broken through their ranks that blocked off the path to freedom, his companions were injured and exhausted but not one of them had been slain that he could see.

His sensory magic flared warningly and he half turned on the spot, thrusting his blade forward and through the abdomen of the goblin who had his sword raised ready finish him, it froze in the shock of being stabbed, pain forcing the air out of it as the tip of the blade broke through the other side of its body. With a grunt Yami pulled his sword out of it and kicked it to the ground where it could die nice and painfully.

Yami backed a little closer to the other elves as they concentrated their force on one point of the goblin line, seeing Malik at the head of the almost-arrow formation with that frighteningly less-then-sane gleam to his pale eyes. He glanced behind him, expecting to see the human cowering there and was shocked into action when all he found was another goblin lunging towards him. It's short sword slipped passed his defences, distracted as he was by finding no human there, and the sharp edge came level with his hip, tearing through the material just below the protective mithril and jutting up underneath it into his side.

Yami gritted his teeth as searing pain momentarily blinded him, staggering backwards as the goblin pulled it's sword out and angled a slash towards his neck. In a desperate move Yami gestured with his fingers and thrust his palm forward, the goblin screamed as frigid air froze the moisture in its eyes, robbing it permanently of vision, it dropped its weapon as it's hands flew up to cover its eyes. Gripping the rough hilt of his sword Yami took his chance and separated it's head from its shoulders.

Gasping and clutching his side Yami staggered into the centre of their ranks for a moment to recuperate, he had no doubt that he would be almost safe there for a short time. He removed his hand from its death grip on his side and was not shocked to find it and his clothes covered in blood. Lifting the material and then the mithril he cursed his own lack of vigilance, had the goblin hit anywhere else on his torso he would have been unharmed, but somehow (luck most likely) the other's blade had angled itself so it glanced off his belt buckle and up under the armours hem.

Where it easily pierced the soft flesh underneath.

Yami winced at the sight of it, it wasn't large but it was deep, a clean slice in his side that bled freely. It hurt terribly and the pain was making him light headed.

"Sire?"

Yami looked up, seeing Era rushing over to him with a tiny bowl in her hand and a smooth pebble covered in white goo in the other. There hadn't been enough weapons for everyone; she had apparently volunteered herself as a battlefield nurse, she always had carried medicinal goods with her. She reached him and dropped to her knees so she was eye level with his wound.

"What can you do with it?" he asked, standing was beginning to become an effort now he had stopped momentum.

She gestured to the small pumice bowl, "I can only numb it I'm afraid, your highness, these crushed snow flowers should slow the bleeding and provide protection from infection until we can reach the city. But you must be careful, even though you wont be able to feel the pain of it you still need to remember its there. Fighting with it and ignoring it could – "

"Just hurry up and do it woman!" He snapped harshly, pain making him irritable and eager to get his attention back in the battle. There was worry nibbling his heart. He kept looking, searching even with enhanced vision, but the human boy was nowhere to be found. Where was that little imp? Hissing as the cool cream-like substance met his wound he turned his gaze instead to finding Malik, a distraction from the strange numb sensation spreading from where there was once burning pain.

Finding the other busy shouting orders to the Elite, Yami called his name to gain his attention, shouting: "The boy!" Malik frowned, not understanding what the prince meant; Yami growled and yelled, "Where is the boy?"

The commander's eyes widened and he glanced frantically around the battlefield as he made his way over to Yami's side. Era stood, having finished attending to the wound, and pulled the prince's mithril carefully back down to cover it.

"I thought he was with you, Sire?" Malik spoke as he reached them, keeping a sharp eye out for any goblins that may break through the protective circle of elves around them.

"So did I." Yami growled, "Apparently humans are even worse at following orders then I thought."

"It is good the demon is no longer with us," Era piped up with a haughty tone, "He would give us nothing but trouble and feed us nothing but lies."

"I've had quite enough of your crackpot demon theories, Era, go attend someone else and get out of my hair!" Yami snapped out the order with a sharp glare, and watched with satisfaction as she scuttled away. Chastised but mumbling under her breath. It was easier to stand now, the pain had vanished entirely, all that was left was the obscure sensation of feeling absolutely nothing around the right side of his waist, but that didn't mean he was any less irritable.

"Your Highness, the boy, he could be…" Malik trailed off, death was a strange thing to elves, a hardy race that held on to life with greater vigour that any other race alive today.

"He's alive." Yami said with strong conviction, "I would have seen his body by now otherwise. But where?"

"Can we not evoke the tracking spell? His trail must be here somewhere."

Yami shook his head, growing angered with his own sense of helplessness, he hated vulnerability, he had grown up with power and knew how to use it. Yet all that power could still not find one small boy in amongst all this blood and death. "There are too many other things happening," he said after a moment, "the imprint of everyone's fighting, and the goblin's deaths will have overpowered everything else recent."

Malik sighed sadly, "They must have gotten to him. Taken him back underground when we were distracted. Shame, the kid was beginning to grow on me."

Yami bristled, for some reason Malik's words plucked a cord that made him angry. At least he thought it was anger. It felt like anger, almost.

Something steel clicked into place inside him.

He began forward, "I'm going to find him."

Malik took a minute to register what had been said, when he finally did he had to lunge to grab the prince's arm and pull him back into relative safety. "Whoa, Sir, you can't just go marching back into those tunnels with this going on."

Yami sent him his best death glare; angered that Malik would dare to restrain him, "You cannot tell me what I can and cannot do, Malik! The fact that the goblins are distracted by fighting us gives me the perfect cover to re-enter."

Malik gave another sigh and tightened his grip on the prince, who narrowed his eyes resentfully, Malik had no doubt he'd be in trouble for this later but keeping Yami alive was the top priority now. "Look, I want to rescue the boy too. The poor thing doesn't have a chance against them and thinking about that makes me want to charge straight back in there, but it wouldn't accomplish anything, Sir. He is human, his life is short, and our home is too cold for him, better to end it sooner then let his suffering continue. We cannot go back for him without giving ourselves a death sentence, you said so yourself, we have to leave him. The loss of him pales in comparison to the lives of the many."

Yami was outraged, not only was Malik telling him how to order his troops and restraining him as he did so, he was also telling him how to organise his priorities. The fact that Malik was right just made the whole situation worse. He knew he shouldn't go back in there, he knew that the boy was as good as gone, he understood that the lives of the elves were more important, and he knew how important his own life was to the people.

But stubbornly he refused to give up. Malik's reasoning just managed to rile him up and right now he was hell bent on doing the opposite of what the commander recommended.

He ripped his arm out of Malik's grip and with a scathing comment turned back to his first destination, ready to charge straight in with magic and blades blazing.

But didn't get a chance to get any further then that when his heart stopped in horror of what he was seeing.

Out of the tunnel entrance the goblin's reinforcements were pouring into the battle. A thick stream of soldiers, that seemed to never end, hundreds and hundreds of them all with malicious grinning faces and drawn swords.

He heard the elves around him falter as one by one they saw what he was wishing he couldn't. A pause, like the calm before the storm, dread entering their hearts with a plague of hopelessness.

And then they came upon them like a wave of force, swarming around them like giant hornets, and noise came back full force to Yami's ears. The screaming and the chaos. Those elves that hadn't been given swords to fight with managed to salvage their own weapons from the dead goblins and it was no longer a fight for freedom, it was a fight to the death. Endurance. How long would it be until the last elf standing was hacked down.

"Fight!" Yami yelled over the noise so all his soldiers would hear, "Focus on getting through, we can still manage it, keep fighting!"

Could they still manage it?

He honestly didn't know.

The situation was more hopeless then it had ever been. Then any situation he had ever been in before. But he had to keep them going. He refused to die.

Focusing only on his sword Yami plunged head first into the bloodbath, infusing his movements and the blade itself with his magic. Making its edge sharper, keener, making himself swift and fluid, almost untouchable.

But the longer he fought the more he could feel exhaustion begin to pull at him. It didn't matter how many he killed, another three replaced each fallen. An endless cycle that was slowly spelling his demise.

And just as everything seemed hopeless something happened that could be nothing less then a miracle sent from above.

The goblins suddenly started retreating, screeching in terror and scattering, fighting to get back underground. Yami stood, bewildered with the others for a good moment before he understood why.

An unbearable wave of heat and a great golden flickering light from behind made him spin around. He took several hurried steps backwards at the unbelievable sight that met his wide eyes.

Just before them was a giant wall of fire. Feeding frantically off the dry heather below their feet and advancing at a frightening pace. It was unnatural. Completely unnatural. Not red and yellow and flickering like all the fire he'd seen before, but bright gold and dancing and breathing and leaping like some wild animal.

"Retreat!" he heard Malik bellow from somewhere near him. And he understood as well as all the others that this was their final chance to escape. The goblins had gone, retreated to safety, now it was their turn.

Yami managed to turn his back on the hypnotising sight and burst into action, running with the rest of them down the path that had finally cleared of all but the corpses of goblins. Fuelled with new adrenaline he soon found himself ahead and leading them all to safety, reaching the end of the dry vegetation that was feeding this fire and stopping a few meters after it. Where they would be safe.

Yami turned again to watch as the golden roaring fire met the end of its run and gazed at the thick smoke blanketing the clear sky. The inferno would be visible for miles and miles; he doubted that Father would wonder where he had vanished to now. As the other elves paused to rest, using the fire as cover to recuperate for the journey home, Yami thought he saw something in the middle of that raging inferno.

His eyes snapped to it and he saw a vague shape, a figure, flicker for a moment before vanishing. There was someone there. And it wasn't a goblin.

Before he knew what he was doing he was racing back towards the now dying flames, ignoring the cry he recognised as Malik's shouting his name and questioning what he thought he was doing.

Pounding up the sloping path Yami managed to doge in between the harsher flames and find his way past them and onto a narrow, dark path that curved around the mountain as a ridge. Hearing footsteps behind him he understood that Malik had followed, a glance told him that a member of the Elite had come too. Not wanting to be stopped Yami sprinted along the path, realising that this dangerous ridge lead back to where they had started but managing to avoid the fire. He didn't know what he was doing but he knew that the person that had started that fire had helped them, intentionally or not, and he wanted to find out who.

"My Prince! Wait!"

Yami cursed Malik's insistence, his loud shouting would alert whoever it was that they were coming and he had hoped to surprise them.

Yami thundered to a stop as he reached a small plateau. Quickly scanning the area with enhanced vision and seeing nothing out of the ordinary apart from the fire over a ridge to his left, he closed his eyes and brought forth his sensory magic, allowing the sensations of wispy coloured trails of emotion to become visible in his minds eye.

Someone had definitely been here. Or something. He had never felt anything like the traces he was picking up.

At this point Malik and the Elite member managed to catch up with him, Hideki gasped, "Your Highness, please! While we still – "

But Yami wasn't interested in listening to his bumbling, he eyes snapped open, still holding onto the magic he spoke, "Someone was here."

There was silence as the other two processed this statement and evoked their own magic to check, Malik spoke thoughtfully: "The fire must have started somehow. Those weren't natural flames."

But Hideki had been too worked up by the night's events to be overly bothered about how a fire had started, "Natural or not we must move out! Get back to the city before the goblins realise the fire has died and come to finish us off!"

Yami heightened his magical sense, calling on the mountain itself to aid him, he frowned at what was revealed to him, he spoke with blunt conviction: "Someone is still here."

Malik stepped up level to him, becoming just as curious as Yami about this aura, "This trail," the commander muttered with his eyes closed, "I've never felt anything like it."

Yami had now managed to pinpoint the source of the aura that was driving his senses haywire, behind a large rock stood before them.

He walked swiftly towards it, preparing himself for a possible fight. But his feet stopped when that same bright gold glow shone out from behind the stone, the light flickering as if whoever it was had lit another large fire.

Not understanding what was happening and eager to alleviate himself from such confusion Yami surged forwards, stretching out a hand to lay against the rock for when he swung round it to surprise the other…

When that same golden fire suddenly erupted from its hiding place.

Yami wasn't even given the chance to react before it had barrelled past him, knocking him back by the sheer force of the heat it was radiating. He span round to watch its progress, a strange winged beast of fire. He could see nothing other then its shape, all other details were utterly obscured by the flames surrounding its body. Malik and Hideki had reacted immediately and were conjuring up long thin shards of ice, spears, to try and end its flat out dash towards the cliff edge.

Yami saw how close one of the spears came to skewering the creature and was forced to react, couldn't Malik and Hideki see that this was the only reason the goblins had retreated? Without its influence, intentional or not, they would either be dead or still fighting for their lives.

He dashed forward, a swift order for them to cease-fire had them confused, but he was already running after the rapidly speeding away fireball. He forced magic into his legs, allowing himself to move even faster, and found himself closing in on it just as it reached the cliff edge. It crouched ready to spring, wings flaring, Yami lunged forward, reaching out a hand to grasp its long tail.

But burning pain forced him back as if it were a physical impact. The fire that was surrounding its body had prevented him from being able to touch its tail and stop it.

He clutched his burnt hand in the other, forcing open his eyes that were swimming in the tears brought on unwillingly by the burn, and glancing up to see the burning creature vanishing into the air. Its golden glow like a beacon in the night sky. Flames creating trails of light as it flapped its huge wings. The prince could only watch it as it grew smaller and further away.

Malik rushed up to him, gaze fixed on the retreating figure, "What in all the Realms was that!?"

Yami didn't answer; he could have sworn that for a second he had seen a flash of purple gazing back at him in amongst the flames as it flew away.

They continued to watch it grow smaller in the sky, now like a star, until the flames suddenly flickered and died. Leaving nothing but a scorched mountain side as evidence of what they had seen.

_----- _

"_Atemu. Your silence angers me. Tell me, is such an atrocity true?"_

"_No Father. I would never willingly stoop so low."_

"_Those are pleasing words. However, I believe further precautions must be taken to erase the people's growing suspicion of such a heinous activity."_

"_What? Precautions? I think that would be unnecessary, Fa –"_

"_From this night on, you are forbidden from leaving the palace at night unless pre-approved by your Mother or myself."_

"_But… no! Father you can't!"_

"_Why can I not? You are my only son, Atemu, I will not let our crown be tarnished by your reckless whims."_

"_For – for how long is this curfew going to hold?"_

"_The people have long memories, Prince." _

_-------------------------_

**AN: **Short chapter - only 3,600 words or something close - but since this chapter and the one after have gone through major remodeling it was nessisary. Unfortunatly it means you have to wait longer for the romance - but some hot stuff is coming so bare with me!

I've also had the coolest plot twist-thingy idea ever for later so I'm really looking forward to writing that. In fact I might do it now...

Review Please! (and the next chapter will be up in two weeks time if you do! And that is, at last, a promise I can keep.)


	8. Chapter Seven

**AN: **I cannot stress to you people how important the italics are. They are little windows into the past before Yuugi was imprisioned and link directly to the current happenings, if you look closely they will slowly explain almost everyhting that happened before and shed light on the future. So, yeah, read them!

This will be riddled with typos and won't, I feel, be as good as my last chapter. Because the last part has been rushed and I want it up here before I'm too busy to remember it.

**Firefly In Ice**

**Chapter Seven **

"… _So."_

"_So."_

"_So… aren't you gonna say anything?"_

"_Like what?"_

"_Like what's going on with you?"_

"_What are you talking about, Ryou? There's nothing 'going on' with me."_

"_Yuugi."_

"_What? Don't give me that look!"_

"_Then tell me!"_

"_Tell you what?!"_

"_Why you're being so distant!"_

"_I'm fine Ryou. Just leave me alone."_

_----------------------------------------------------------- _

Yuugi regained partial consciousness as the final corpse was thrown off the side of the cliff. The dull thwacks and sickening thuds as the body tumbled downwards brought something resembling sanity back to his fogged mind.

But this time he was nothing more then a small voice of reason buried under centuries of torment and hate. He had to fight with himself as his body moved instinctually towards the battle, wanting to find others to use to relieve the stress and the hurt and the misunderstanding of what the Shadows had done to him, his claws itched to be used, his tail twisted restlessly. But it wasn't right. He couldn't take what had happened to him out on those who had nothing to do with it, he couldn't use the weak as scratching posts to sharpen his claws, his wit and desires for revenge, ready for the Shadows.

A part of him said that was what the weak were for.

But the other part just wanted out.

And it was that part that, at last, managed to break through the crazed fog to bring himself back under control.

Yuugi took long steadying breaths, feeling that uncontrollable anger ebbing away to nothing. Whatever it was that kept causing him to loose it like this he had to find a way to keep it under control. It had saved his life many times now but he couldn't live a life at the mercy of his instincts.

Straightening Yuugi stepped away from the dark bloodstains left on the rock and moved over to the cliff edge, deciding he definitely needed to get out of here as fast as was demonly possible. Kneeling down to look at his options he realised that the only real way down was blocked by elves and goblins. He would have to fly then. Or at least make his first attempt.

Yuugi spread his wings, once again taken aback by how huge they were, each one at least twice the size of his body. How the hell was he going to coordinate these things enough to fly? He glanced back down at the sheer rock face, no there was still no way down by climbing short of digging his claws right into the rock and skidding down like that, and he wanted skin left on his hands by the time he reached the bottom. He glanced back at the top of the valley, on the other side there was a safe way down on foot but then he'd get caught by the still fighting elves and goblins, he huffed in defeat. Looked like it was flying then. Holding his wings out parallel to each other he flapped one then the other, and was impressed by the amount of power they had. Beginning to flap them together the amount of air that was caught by the membranes and pushed under managed to lift the front half of his body off the ground, his arms held in the air. Yuugi grinned and flopped back down; maybe he could do this after all. And if not he could always just glide down, gliding sounded pretty self-explanatory.

He turned and walked a few feet away from the edge, facing the drop off again he hunkered down, digging his claws into the hard snow and pressing his wings flat on his back to make it easier to run. He fixed his eyes on a point far on the horizon and shot forwards, running as fast as he could towards the edge to give him no time to second think it and to give himself the best lift-off he could. He bent his body almost in half so both his hands and feet gripped the edge of the rock at once, coiling the muscles in his back legs and flaring his wings out he pushed off from the ground with a powerful leap and flap.

He was airborne.

It was the most exhilarating feeling he had experienced to date (or at least of what he could remember). The world spread out below him, vast and alive, the cold wind rushed alongside him as if encouraging him. The way his wings tilted into the wind to gain altitude, the weight on his wing joints that constantly tried to make him succumb to gravity, the instinctual movement of his tail as it acted like a rudder and a balancer, it was all real and perfect in a way that made him feel more alive then ever.

He was right. Flying was something he enjoyed.

As he passed over the valley he had feared of falling into the sounds of the fighting elves and goblins drifted further and further away, no more then a distant and faint reminder of where he had come from. Now flying over the nearest mountain peak, lower then the one of the Grey Mountain, he felt a sudden influx of curiosity about the elves he had left behind. Swerving in midair and flapping his wings now angled downwards he found himself slowing to a stop. Hovering where he was he glanced back at the very clear battle taking place. He felt a sudden influx of guilt. Those elves had saved him from imprisonment, brought him out in the open air with great risk to themselves. They hadn't, he knew, set out to save him, they hadn't even known he was there, but still… he owed them a dept.

He disliked owing people debts.

But it wasn't like he could do anything about that right now. He couldn't be seen like this, he wouldn't risk being dragged back underground. Era already knew what he was and he needed to escape this inhospitable place of snow and ice. He needed to travel south, where he felt the wind currents coming from, warmer and promising the hotter environment he craved.

He needed to go. They would be fine. They had to be.

But just as he was about to turn away his sharp eyes caught sight of something that cemented his fate. Out of the tunnel entrance a fresh and seemingly endless stream of goblins were pouring into the open. Moving towards the tiring elfin soldiers.

Without help they most certainly wouldn't be fine now.

Swearing angrily, Yuugi angled his wings and began to fly back where he had come from. Landing with dificulty (it was a lot harder than taking off) next to the streaks of black blood where he had pushed the dead goblins over the cliff before. He ran up a steep incline and reached the narrow valley where the fight was taking place. He had done a full circle and was now stood on the opposite side of the battle from before.

He searched the fighters for the prince, and nearly, inexplicably, panicked when he didn't find him straight away. It was understandable to care about his life, Yuugi told himself, after all the prince had personally freed him. The prince was fighting beside that blond Malik, whose light lilac eyes had taken on a slightly insane gleam at the bloodshed, and a female he didn't recognise. Era was somewhere in the mess, he had caught a glimpse of her as he looked for the prince.

Yuugi watched them for a moment; it was amazing how they could fight like that. How could someone be graceful while dismembering your opponent? He looked at the prince and wondered just how long it would have taken, just how much training and dedication it took to be able to wield a sword like that. With an ease and assurance so clear it looked as if the blade was a permanent extension of the arm.

He was brought back to reality when a thick, short black arrow embedded itself in the rock just below his hiding place.

Yuugi ducked back, crouching low and wondering just how he was supposed to help. Charging straight in there would be nothing short of suicidal.

If only there was a way to distract the goblins long enough for the elves to escape.

He shifted his foot into a more comfortable position. Something dry and rough cracked under the movement.

Yuugi looked down, surprised. He hadn't noticed it before but this entire lower part of the mountainside was covered in brown, ancient plants.

He looked intently at the dry heather below him, it was dead and cracked under his feet and had been sheltered from the wet snow by the other mountains. It would burn beautifully. And what a distraction that would create! He had so far only managed to manipulate pre-existing fire but he had seen the elfin prince create ice out of thin air, could he do the same with fire?

Crouching down he took a clump of the vegetation into his hand. It was brittle and broke under the smallest force. The prince hadn't spoken any incantations to summon ice but he had looked like he had entered deep concentration. But what did he concentrate on?

'Fire,' he thought, imagining that perhaps whatever magic it was he could use was listening, 'I need fire.'

But after a moment of waiting and nothing happening he growled and clenching his fist he ground the tinder into dust in frustration. Hatred and anger bubbling in his stomach as he realised this was all the fault of those damned Shadows. Everything was their fault, his predicament, his weakness, his lack of memory. Did they enjoy torturing him? Was he nothing but a worn out toy for their amusement? Where they watching him even now? Laughing at his failures as they plotted to return him to their hell?

The goblin army grew and grew as more spilled out of the underground tunnels, the elves, injured and exhausted, were surrounded. And even though he had decided to actually help them there was nothing he could do but watch as the goblins drew closer, blades and eyes flashing in anticipation of the slaughter.

He let out a shout of frustration, unheard over the clashing of swords and battle cries, and threw the broken bits of bracken and dust back at the cliff beside him.

It hit the rock and scattered in a flower like explosion of hot embers.

Yuugi stared at the scattering ash with wide eyes. So he _could_ do it! He looked down at his hand as the small flames flickered and died away from his skin. His eyes narrowed as he thought, it came down to emotion yet again. Being overcome by hunger and desperation caused him to loose awareness and kill. Feeling guilt had given him a human form and experiencing anger and wrath had taken it back. And now the heat of rage had given him fire. His own source of fire that bubbled up from his stomach and burst from his skin.

He looked down at the bracken again, the cliffs were fairly covered by it, and the battle was downwind from here, the air currents would encourage the flames to spread where he wanted them to. He clenched his fist again, trying to recreate the anger towards his unfair fate from before, it didn't take long and before he realised what he was doing he was concentrating, channelling the inner fire into his fist and watching the flames that burst forth. They were an odd, unnatural shade, more golden then the other natural fire he had seen and the flames danced with a life that seemed all of their own.

Yuugi lowered the flames to the bracken and watched with glee as the dry twigs caught, now alight and burning and spreading at an alarming rate. He didn't for a moment fear for himself, the burning heat that surrounded him didn't hurt in the slightest, in fact it felt wonderful and comforting, familiar.

It wasn't long before the entire mountainside was alight with bright gold fire, the flames jumped and licked at the air like living creatures, racing towards the battle with delighted hissing cries. The goblins screeched and chattered in terror, fleeing the heat and light and retreating back underground. Yuugi watched as the elves ran for their own lives, dodging in and out of burning ground with an agility and grace that mesmerised him. He didn't fear for their lives as he walked through the flames as if they were nothing more then air, following the group slowly, they were far too smart and swift to get caught.

The smoke was thick and heavy, a sooty black that blocked out the sky but Yuugi found beauty in the way it swirled and plumed above him, little embers lighting the black smoke as if they were yellow stars and the soot was the night sky. He reached the edge of where the flames stopped, unable to carry on any further due to the lack of vegetation. And saw the elves gazing back at the inferno from the safety of a few meters back.

Yuugi's heart jolted and he panicked, jumping back and behind a rock hoping against hope they hadn't seen him. It would be best for them to assume he had either vanished back underground with the goblins or perished in the fire. He needed to get out of here anyway, the fire wouldn't last forever with such thin and easily burned tinder, and already the flames were lessening. It was more smoke then fire now.

He moved under the cover of the dark smoke, slinking back down on all fours to make himself less conspicuous. He was covered in the smog by now; the tiny little black particles had clung to the natural moisture of his skin and was making him a little uncomfortable. But at least it might help him to remain unseen at night.

Running through the burning ground he came to where he had started, where the fire had already died and the bracken was black and brittle underfoot. The entire area stank of burnt things. Yuugi looked back, he didn't see anyone, and before him there was just the cliff he had jumped from before. Smiling, thinking he had escaped, he dashed forward.

"My Prince! Wait!"

Yuugi tripped, shock making him fumble over his own feet, landing in an awkward pile he swung his gaze back behind him. But there was no one there, so then who had shouted loud enough to be heard over the fire? His sensitive hearing picked up a sound to his right; foot falls, they were using the narrow ridge he had used earlier to avoid the fire. Panicking he scrambled back to his feet and dove behind a large rock to the left, grazing his arm on the rough surface as he did so.

Clutching his elbow and trying not to hiss in pain Yuugi leant his back against the rock, listening carefully as the footsteps reached where he had been stood and stopped. Three of them judging by the sound.

"Your highness please, while we still – "

"Someone was here."

Yuugi froze, fear pounding in his heart. That was the prince.

"The fire must have started somehow. They weren't natural flames." Said a voice Yuugi thought belonged to Malik.

"Natural or not we must move out. Get back to the city before the goblins realise the fire has died and come to finish us off!" The first voice, someone Yuugi didn't recognise, spoke.

"Someone is still here." The prince again. Yuugi's claws dug into the rock he didn't know what would happen if they found him. Would he have to attack? Or would they just let him go in thanks for saving them? He doubted the latter. But he didn't want to have to hurt them after the lengths he had just gone to so they were safe. Why couldn't they just say thank you to whatever almighty power rescued them and go? Where all elves this infuriating?

"This trail…" Malik's voice again, "I've never felt anything like it." It sounded more like he was talking to himself then to the others but even his voice couldn't block out the sound of someone's footsteps drawing closer and closer to his hiding place. And somehow Yuugi understood that they already knew he was here.

He crouched down ready to spring. He didn't know whether it would he better to dash out now and hope he could reach the cliff edge before they could stop him or wait until they saw him and feign an attack to force his way past them.

If he could just find a way to distract them then neither idea would be necessary.

In desperation he tried to re-invoke the same fire he had used before. It had clung to the skin of his hand, perhaps he could force it cling to his entire body and obscure him as he escaped. He closed his eyes to concentrate as he managed to find that heat inside him again.

It was only when he heard overly loud gasps and exclamations of surprise that he opened his eyes to look down at his body. And miraculously he saw that it had worked. His entire form was shrouded behind bright gold flames. The footsteps, which had momentarily stalled, quickened to a run and Yuugi knew that his chance was now.

He gathered all his strength and shot out from behind his cover. Running on all fours with his wings pressed tightly against his back he was certain he would look like nothing more then an oddly shaped ball of fire. Wherever his skin made contact with the ground patches of molten flames continued to burn. Almost immediately Yuugi saw the elfin prince, his hand still outstretched to touch the rock of his hiding place, his red eyes wide with shock. Yuugi only caught a glimpse of him and the two elves behind him before they were knocked aside by the force of the heat radiating from him.

He was close to the cliff edge again before he heard a loud shout, a word he couldn't identify with the wind and fire and pounding adrenaline rushing past his ears, and a long shard of blue ice, a spear, imbedded into the rock just a hairs width from his hand. But even as he rushed passed it the heat of his body melted it into water. He heard another shout, and a second spear almost severed the end of his tail as it whipped to the side.

Shit, these elves were really aiming to kill him. Perhaps he had been mistaken about the prince? Maybe he was a lesser person then Yuugi had given him credit for.

He had reached the end and flaring his wings out took to the air, for a moment he thought he felt freezing cold fingers ghost across his tail, as if trying to grab him. But they missed and he was already away. He wondered, as he flew, why the elves were no longer trying to stop him. Surely they could still throw their spears when he was in the air? And he was an easy target with the fire surrounding him making him a shining beacon in the night sky. Speaking of which he would have to let the fire go soon, he could feel it draining his strength. He wouldn't get far if he flew like this all the time.

Curiously he turned his head to look back even as he flapped to go faster, he was already too far away for them to hit him now but before… why hadn't they? Yuugi blinked at what he saw, the elfin prince was stood at the edge of the cliff, two small circles of fire, where Yuugi had stepped, just by his feet, he was staring intently up at Yuugi and the demon felt a chill go down his spine. He didn't like that look in the elf's eyes. It was far too knowing. Had he been the one to try and grab him? The prince was holding one hand in the other, as if cradling an injury, and Yuugi could have sworn their eyes met even over the distance.

He snapped his head back and tilted into the wind, desperate to get away.

Yuugi let the flames die down around him, he was so far away now that the only thing they would do would be to highlight him against the sky rather then hide him. He shivered at the chill that came to him and glanced over the horizon, over the mountain range before him he could see the sky lightening.

Dawn?

Well good, perhaps now he could get some heat back into his cold body.

Placing the image of those red eyes in a far dark corner of his mind, Yuugi readjusted his direction to head south and tried to let the joy of freedom through flight distract him from the niggling feeling that he was leaving something important behind.

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Yuugi didn't know how long he flew. Following the warmer air currents that flowed from the south. As the sun rose it had given him the most spectacular view, sparkling snow and vast expanses of land below him

He felt free. Truly free. It was a feeling he was fast becoming addicted to.

But although the sun felt glorious on his back, the heat it bathed him in giving him strength, by the time the sun was halfway between its highest point and the horizon, some time after noon, Yuugi was exhausted. His wings were beginning to feel like lead and his eyes stung. It felt like a long time since he had last slept properly, the beautiful sight of the world below him, the forests and mountains and vast empty tundra, had become just background to him now he had spent nearly all day flying south.

At one point Yuugi was sure he had fallen asleep in the air while his wings continued to keep him moving. Because when he next opened his eyes he was met by a great expanse of thick white fog.

Confused by the natural phenomenon he dipped lower in the sky until he was gliding just above the treetops, the fog was getting so thick that if he hadn't dropped altitude he would have lost his way. The air had become still since the wind had died down and he feared loosing his way. When the trees below him suddenly ended Yuugi looked down to see a narrow pebble beach that stretched out to seeming infinity on either side of him, the pebbles sunk into what looked like deep water, foam lapping at the shore gently in a soothing rhythm.

Angling his flight further down Yuugi landed, albeit clumsily, on the pebbles, they were smoothed by the water and varying shades of grey and white.

He tried to stand up straight but collapsed immediately back on all fours, the muscles that coordinated his wings had become so stiff that it was too hard to stand up while holding his wings off the ground.

Cursing to himself Yuugi glanced around, the trees had stopped just before the pebble beach began and formed a kind of natural barrier between the land and the water. He noticed the air tasted unusually salty and wet. Staring out at the expanse of water Yuugi realised that he was standing before the ocean. The air currents had been directing him this way so that meant he would have to cross over a sea with no idea how large it was. He couldn't see anything any further then a few meters away through this dense fog.

And his stomach was rumbling, reminding him how much energy he had burnt getting here.

Yuugi sighed, this just kept getting better. At least he was free though; that was a pleasant thought that lifted his spirits.

Mentally mapping his position he made his way back into the forest, knowing his best chance of a meal lay in there. He didn't have a clue how to fish after all. There was still snow on the ground, not thick or heavy but a fine coating that proved to Yuugi that he was going in the right direction for warmer weather.

He searched the forest tiredly, until he caught sight of small hoof prints in the snow, smiling in pleasure of finally finding prey he set off after the prints, smelling the air and catching the sweet scent of sweat on the almost non-existent breeze. He followed it until he heard a slight crunch in the thicket before him, whatever had made these hoof prints was in there. Crouching close to the ground Yuugi slunk around the thicket until he was sure he was downwind of the creature, then silently pushed his way through the bushes. His stomach rumbled in anticipation.

But he was forced to stop himself from barrelling forwards at what he saw. In the thicket stood a deer, small and spry with bright, bright eyes. That in itself wouldn't have been enough to stop him, but the fact that by her side stood a tiny spotted fawn, shivering in the first few hours after birth as its mother helped it to stand for the first time, made him incapable of carrying out his plan.

Yuugi watched the young doe and her fawn for a long moment. They would be perfect prey, alone and relatively weak, packed with all the nutrition he would need with some to spare. But he couldn't do it. They were too easy. It wouldn't be fair. Especially if one of them escaped without the other, separating a mother and child was a monstrous thing to do. And ending a life so new and fresh… he remembered how he had felt when he escaped from the Shadow's hell, how real and alive everything had become when looking down at the world from the sky as he flew, and tried to imagine denying the fawn the same chance to experience life.

Yuugi turned away from the two and moved at a steady swift pace down the path he had come. He couldn't do it. And that small fact threw his mind into turmoil. Who was he supposed to be after all? Knowing he was a demon was one thing, understanding what being a demon meant was another. The elves and goblins had given the overwhelming impression that demons were terrible and unreasonable monsters. Yuugi knew that he wasn't a monster, but was he supposed to be? Was he supposed to be without compassion even in its simplest form?

He stopped dead in the middle of a clearing, the late afternoon sun filtering weakly through the fog, the thin snow glittering like it was sprinkled with diamonds, small plants pushing up from under all the white and erupting in tiny colourful spring flowers. A terrible thought had just occurred to him.

What if… what if that was the reason? What if he had been different? So different that others of his kind deemed him too dangerous or just an unnatural freak of the species and, thus, tried to get rid of him? What if that was why he had been in hell? Sent to barely survive in eternal nothingness for eternity.

The revelation made him tremble in the encroaching darkness of evening, under the suppressing weight of the fog above. And utterly alone in his torment.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yuugi woke early the next morning, having slept poorly on the snow covered ground and plagued with nightmares that he couldn't remember. The evening before had been both awful and interesting. The horrid thoughts of possible reasons as to why he was tortured had refused to leave him, even as he tried to hunt for something else, he was so distracted that finding live food had been too much and so instead Yuugi had stumbled across a glade in the forest, quite by accident, in which grew the largest and richest berries Yuugi had ever seen or tasted. Bright purple fruits about two inches in diameter, held in leaf-like pods, and brimming with nutrition. That had been the only interesting part, discovering he could eat and survive off other things than meat.

There were still a number of them clutched in his hands for food during the next leg of his journey. Yuugi had soon discovered that only constant activity kept him from reliving his doubts.

The fog had cleared overnight, and as he glanced up from his arms the amount of blue that hit his eyes was colossal. Yuugi immediately wondered if he was still dreaming, but the cramps from spending all night curled up in ice made him think otherwise, in disbelief he struggled to his feet, gazing out at the water before him.

So this was the ocean. Had it always been this big? It looked like an expanse of deep sapphire that stretched far beyond infinity. It was calm, but he could see the waves curling and crashing into each other and the shore with white crests of foam and the timeless rhythm of the shifting tide.

But as beautiful as it was it made Yuugi feel uneasy. He couldn't explain why it caused him to shift and twine his fingers into the linen he wore as if to gain comfort from it. Perhaps it had something to do with his orientation to fire? He shook his head, dispersing those thoughts, it wasn't like he'd be given any answers anyway.

Unfurling his wings Yuugi leapt into the air, finding an updraft and using it to rise effortlessly into the sky, he attempted to see an end to the sea. But the opposite shore, if there was one, could not be seen.

He had never used an updraft before; it was ridiculously easy to fly using them. Perhaps that was why he had been so tired, not using the air correctly and pouring too much effort into flying himself. The wind had picked up again, the warm air was flowing from the south, enticing him with its promises.

And so, after taking one last glance at the snow covered land behind him, Yuugi angled forward and into the wind, catching another updraft to build altitude for his longest flight yet.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yuugi's only guides where the wind, the sun, and the stars. His only food the berries in his hands. And no chance for a rest. He had flown all day and through the night. An endless expanse of blue below and above gave the impression that he wasn't moving, and for all he knew the world could have stopped and he was hanging stationary in the air. That was how uneventful the journey was. Not a single landmark to guide the way. Only the wind and the sun and the stars. The berries had all been eaten.

He had nothing to do but look ahead, concentrating on the wind currents that helped him fly. Dark thoughts tormented him. Even darker memories haunted him. What hope was there left? Was there anything but emptiness ahead, mirrored only by the nothingness of behind?

Eventually his mind settled on the only true question he had left. What had happened during the time he was imprisoned? What had happened to his people? And pushing all other thoughts away Yuugi concentrated on that alone, forcing down the urge to turn around and return from where he had come for the simple comfort of someone who knew he existed.

It wasn't the first time the elfin prince's image had flashed across his mind.

As dawn reached him on his second day of flight Yuugi's half lidded eyes caught sight of a long shadow on the horizon, opening them fully he squinted into the sun and felt elation flood him. There was land ahead. He had made it!

It was late morning by the time Yuugi left the ocean behind him, the mass of blue opening out to gently rolling green hills. A vast expanse of open grassland interspersed only with the occasional formation of bare rock. It was wonderfully warm but his sheer exhaustion blocked out any thoughts of victory.

He was a few miles inland before he spotted what he wanted: food. A flightless bird, taller then him with long legs and neck, foraging below. Yuugi dove sharply, knowing he'd never have the strength to chase it, swooping in from behind he used the last of his energy to spin in midair and bring his tail crashing down on the back of its head.

It fell without even a squawk.

He landed painfully, every muscle in his body hurting and stiff from his marathon flight, and set to work roughly tearing off the feathers for the flesh underneath.

When he was full and sated he curled up on a soft patch of grass and almost immediately fell into a dead sleep. He would worry about everything else when he woke.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

And wake he did. To the sound of thunder.

Yuugi groaned, curling into a tighter ball with his tail tucked between his legs and pulling his wings over himself for protection. He was still far too tired to care about a stupid thunderstorm.

He frowned into the warm grass when the thunder began to shake the ground he was lying on. Begrudgingly he opened his eyes and peaked through a gap in his makeshift blanket to see what kind of thunder could possibly be making the ground rumble like this.

He was awake in an instant. Sitting up on his elbows as an impenetrable forest of hooves surrounded him. Confusion as to why horses would surround him in such a manner Yuugi looked up.

His eyes widened in shock.

They weren't horses.

At the point where the horse's body should have become its long neck and head, human torsos replaced them. Wild looking men and women whose waists melded into varying shades and types of horse's bodies.

Centaurs.

And as if his life couldn't currently be any worse, Yuugi was also faced with a second forest of weapon points. Every single one of them aiming an arrow or spear directly at him, some were barely inches from his face.

Yuugi heaved a dramatic sigh; talking for the first time in days he asked himself, "Why is it that no matter where I go, people point sharp objects in my direction?"

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"_It's the Shadows isn't it?"_

"_Ah… ha, no of course not! You jump to too many conclusions Ryou!"_

"_Don't lie to me Yuugi."_

"_I'm not lying. I just… don't feel very well that's all. Honest." _

"… _Are you sure?"_

"_Positive."_

"_You're shivering."_

"_I'm just a little unwell, I told you."_

"_How long have you been staying with us now, Yuugi?"_

"_Errrm… nearly four months now I think."_

"_Well that's it then."_

"_I haven't overstayed my welcome have I?"_

"_No, no not that. Yuugi, you've been in the north too long. You need to get out of this cold."_

"_I'm inside aren't I?"_

"_No I mean you need to go back south. And soon. Before this cold actually does some permanent damage to you."_

"_You and Bakura are fine and you've lived here all you're lives!"_

"_Stop being childish, you know full well that cold doesn't affect us! We're ice demons, we live in ice!"_

"_But…" _

"_You are of fire. And you've been away from your home for far too long. Go back to your deserts, Yuugi._

_--------------------------------------------_

**AN: **To be honest I'm surprised this is actually up, what with everything that has happened this week. Last sunday I left home for the first time and started university. And although I'm still finding my footing and don't know what to expect for next week when it all really begins (freshers week can't be counted as actual uni lmao) I think I can describe my freshers week in one word. Awesome. That, along with my new found obsession with 'Death Note', will mean slower updates. Sorry, just wait until I've settled into this new life and I should be back on track. Everything is a bit daunting at the moment.


	9. Chapter Eight

**AN: **Sorry this is so late. And so short. And to add to that it's a shameful chapter because I think it might be one of those dreadful fillers that everyone hates, but it has some very necessary bits that needed to be put in and provides the little pause-thingy that also needed to happen for Yami to recollect his thoughts.

**Firefly In Ice**

**Chapter Eight**

"_Cousin."_

"What _Seth?!"_

"_Normally I wouldn't care even if you threw yourself off the highest balcony, but if you pace past me one more time I swear I will throttle you."_

"_I'd like to see you try!"_

"_You _are_ distracted if you think such a pathetic comeback is going to get a challenge out of me."_

"_What if I bribed the… no that wouldn't work. Think, Atemu, think!"_

"_I suggest you don't, I refuse to clean up another one of your messes." _

"_Argh! I won't stand for this! Father cannot expect me to comply to his every whim and whish!"_

"_Yes, he can. Or have you by any chance missed the crown on his head?"_

"_I am this kingdom's golden child, he treats me as if I'm three!"_

"_Have you ever thought that's because you _act_ like a three year old?" _

"_How about that brunette maid… if I could persuade her to – "_

"_Didn't I just say I refuse to clean up another mess?! I've had it with you and your infatuation with this little imp! And I have had it with covering up for you while you sneak out at night with that little guard trailing after you just so you can go fuck a demon!"_

_-_

Jounouchi flinched as yet another one of his painstakingly positioned targets shattered into pieces. Clattering to the polished stone floor in splinters of wood that he just knew he was going to have to clean up later.

Another curse sounded, a whooshing of air, and another round of dull thwacks and thumps filled his ears.

Yami's meeting with the King this morning hadn't gone well.

Jounouchi hated being around the Prince when he was in this mood. Granted he was always rude and brooding, so one would think Jounouchi, being his bodyguard, would be used to it by now. But brooding was one thing, smashing apart the training rooms was another.

Yami was so worked up he wasn't even practicing with the bow, instead choosing to summon up daggers of blue ice and hurl them at everything he could. Magic training and aim practice all in one.

Jounouchi sighed, things were so much easier when Yami was still engrossed in archery. That way at least his targets survived relatively intact rather than exploding violently on contact. But that had been nearly a year ago now; Yami had been interested in seemingly nothing since then.

And secretly, that worried Jounouchi.

The Prince's moods had been getting progressively worse since his loss of interest in archery. He was becoming more unpredictable and liable to explode in a fit of rage over the smallest thing.

Last nights excursion proved that all too well.

Because Jounouchi could just tell that Yami wouldn't have gone storming out and into the goblin city if his family hadn't disagreed with his plan. He was constantly at a loose end, constantly lost without direction, always searching for the next big attention grabber and always on the look out for the smallest thing to lash out at with his unreasonable temper.

Slowly, one by one, Yami had lost his interests. Swordsmanship he had mastered at the age of seventy, horse ridding he could do with his eyes closed before his fortieth birthday, archery he perfected a good fifty years ago but had been an ongoing hobby until recently when Yami had suddenly, in a fit of unpredictable rage, snapped his bow. And even his academic studies, the ones like history and geography that he hated with a passion, he excelled in for no other reason then it was something to do. Add to that the fact that he was the kingdom's prodigy at all things elfin magic and you had one well-rounded brat on your hands.

Jounouchi wished their Prince would go back to the hard working little trickster he was until his twenty-seventh. At least then he wasn't liable to cut your head off for not greeting him correctly in the hallway. But all of the various other hobbies he had taken up throughout the seven hundred years of his life had faded into the background, even hunting, which had gone hand in hand with his love of archery for a good couple of centuries, now only received the smallest amount of attention from Yami.

Even the war only roused a controlled amount of excitement in him. As if he was only participating because he had nothing else to do.

A snarl, and Jounouchi flinched again as this time a blue dagger disturbed his hair as it shot by him with enough power to freeze the moisture in the air as it flew. Perhaps it was time to put his neck on the line and interfere before he was impaled.

"Sire?" He ventured hesitantly.

"_What?_" The reply was venomous, Jounouchi was keenly aware of the next dagger the Prince was materialising in his palm.

"Perhaps… err," Damn, what in the Realms had he planned on saying again? "Perhaps if –"

"Perhaps you should hold your tongue."

Jounouchi was cleaver enough to recognise a threat when he heard one. He controlled his expression so it hid his disappointment and stayed wisely silent as the Prince began hurling missiles again.

But thankfully, Jounouchi's rescue came in the form of Malik entering the vast training room. The ornate wooden door echoing in the cavernous pale stone hall set with frosted stars resonating soft silver light the closest to natural sunlight elfin magic could be.

Finally, with a sour look, Yami let go of his magic and rose out of an attack crouch, standing straight and turning to the doorway.

Malik bowed correctly, avoiding the Prince's immediate wrath, and spoke solemnly, "Sire, forgive my interruption, but His Highness the King wishes for a private audience with you in the throne room."

At the mention of his father Yami's aura momentarily flared in a way that promised danger, and the two soldiers braced for whatever was about to be thrown their way, but the hot anger was withdrawn almost as soon as it had come, receding into a cold rage. The Prince appeared capable, at least, in controlling himself until he faced the source of his current temper.

"Why would he send you instead of one of the servants?" Yami's tone was lightly accusing, as if he were claiming that Malik was attempting to sink lower on the social scale just to further irritate him.

"I have just left from a meeting with the King myself, he felt you were more likely to listen to me than a servant."

Yami made a displeasured sound at the back of his throat, "So Father thinks I am not willing to face him again? We'll see."

Jounouchi followed the Prince up to where Malik was stood, who bowed again as Yami passed, but stopped, knowing he would not be welcome in a private meeting between the King and his only son.

"And Sire?" Malik called after him after a moments pause, he waited until Yami turned back to look at him before continuing, "There has been no word of the boy."

Yami flared up again, glaring at Malik he hissed, "Did I ask for news?" And spun sharply on his heel, disappearing round a corner without a backwards glance.

There was a pleasant pause between Jounouchi and Malik, both simply enjoying the absence that was the oppressive presence of Yami's moods.

Malik ran a hand through his thick hair, sighing, "He's been like this all day then?"

"Since he got back from last night. Hasn't slept a moment, I'm sure."

"The King doesn't help things. You'd think that by now they would be able to tolerate each other better."

Jounouchi stretched the kinks out of his shoulders and back, the cause of being stood so still for so long, "Yami's not free from the blame you know, this can't just be passed off as adolescent rebelling anymore."

Malik 'hummed' an affirmative. Then noticed Jounouchi was looking at him slyly from a corner of his eye, "What?"

"So, who's this boy you mentioned? Seemed to get one hell of a rise of Mr. High and Mighty."

Malik shook his head, "Just another innocent goblin victim, but probably another reason Yami's so pissed. I don't think it's just the argument with the King that set him so on edge."

Jounouchi raised a questioning eyebrow, but Malik refused to elaborate more than that.

-

To say that Yami hated his Father right now would be a spectacular understatement. To say that Malik was so far out of line by mentioning the human boy that he deserved to be hung upside down by his little toe and left to the wolves… no the rats, so it would take longer and be twice as excruciating! Was also an understatement.

Yami had never felt his blood boil quite as acutely as he had this dawn, at being lectured by his Father about how he risked everything for a reckless act that had no possible useful outcome. Yami had been outraged, he had discovered vital information! Where the goblins had built their great city, how the underground was organised, what they did with prisoners. Not to even mention the captured elves he had rescued and the goblins he had slaughtered in the ensuing battle. And kept them all alive to escape without a scratch!

Yami winced and clutched his side as it gave him a painful reminder that 'without a scratch' was going a little too far.

And yet, despite all of this, his Father remained devoutly ignorant of his son's accomplishments. Chose instead to penalise him for these successes.

"What will we do with this information?" He had asked, "We cannot send an army into a bottle neck like those tunnels, their own territory, we would be slaughtered one by one."

His Mother's sobbing had only made it worse, listening to her grief over how she could have lost him made him feel guilt he knew he didn't deserve.

And guilt was already plaguing his thoughts with the pretty face of that human boy, images of him flitting in and out of Yami's mind with an insistency bordering on obsession. Just the thought of what those goblins must have done to him by now… it made him want to break things.

Yami had tried to sleep, he honestly had, but every time he closed his eyes flashes of that boy disturbed him, something about him unnerved him, something about the boy made him feel something that confused him.

And even when he wasn't thinking of the boy and the argument with his Father there was another thing that plagued him. The golden fire from the Grey Mountain.

The flaming creature that had burned his hand and vanished into the sky.

Yami was at a complete loss as to what it could have been, but he wasn't one for giving up either.

He would find that creature. Although he wasn't sure why he wanted to. Boredom most likely, a mystery to explore and further prove to his Father how deserving he was of the throne.

But right now, Yami was more interested in exactly who this elder elf was that stood next to his Father's throne. A tall elf with long silver hair that fell over and obscured his right eye, dressed in clothing that revealed he was from the western tip of their Kingdom, the small isolated city he forgot the name of that rested in the far reaches of the Tundra's edge.

"Son, this is Pegasus. He is my new advisor, treat him with more respect than you do the rest of the council, will you?"

Yami wasn't sure how or why, but he knew this was going to be a bad thing.

_-_

"_Don't talk about him like that!"_

"_I have half a mind to tell Uncle myself about – "_

"_You tell anyone and I will expose to the entire kingdom exactly what you and that blond palace guard are doing every night!"_

"_W-what!"_

"_You and Jou are doing something for the hours you go missing, and you sure as hell aren't playing chess!"_

"… _fine. But if our family ever discovers that you've fallen for a member of the Ice Clan then don't expect me to come to either of your rescues. You know they won't let the blood feud between the elves and the Clan die out just because you happen to frequently have… relations with one of them!"_

"_Yuugi isn't a member of the Ice Clan. He's one of the Fire Clan."_

"… What_."_

"_Heh, don't give me that look. Just because you're having 'relations' with a palace guard doesn't mean I can't let my standard lower. I'm well aware that Yuugi's one of the 'big fish' in the sea."_

"_Have you learnt _nothing_ from our lectures!?"_

"_There's no need to hiss at me. And you know I never bothered in those things."_

"_He's a fire demon!"_

"_Thanks for the heads up, Seth, I _never_ would have guessed."_

"_You're insane! Atemu, you can never see him again! If you do I promise you I will tell Uncle, even if it means exposing Jou and I! You can't go to him again. Ever!" _

----------------------------------------------------------

**AN:** Agh! Shortness! It gets better in the next one trust me, and the romance is on its way, just give it a couple of chapters and then it pretty much jumps right in there... you'll see what I mean.

And on the plus side I've met a crazy person who likes to quote the crazy cat lady from The Simpsons and Eddie Izzard. She's awesome. And lives opposite me in the halls! And reads fanfiction, and pretty much figured me out in the first few days so now I think I have myself both a beta reader and someone who can poke me for faster updates!

In fact she's here right now poking me for the next chapter, but I dunu when it'll be up. I have a load of deadlines.

Review Please!

Becuase you just know that you want to read the puzzleshipping before Christmas don't you?

So Review!


	10. Chapter Nine

**Firefly In Ice**

**Chapter Nine**

"_Yuugi? Are you almost done?"_

"_Getting there, Ryou, why?"_

"_Just wondered if you needed any help."_

"_You're that eager to be rid of me?"_

"_Don't be silly, and stop grinning at me like that!"_

"_Not my fault you're so loud, Ryou."_

"_Last night was a… just a…"_

"_Rerun of the night before? I'll be happy to get some peace from you and Bakura's nightly… adventures."_

"_Okay! Moving to another subject. Have you told Atemu about going home?"_

"… _hmm."_

"'_Hmm' what Yuugi? You haven't?"_

* * *

Yuugi wished he knew how he always found himself in these situations. He wished he understood _why_ he always found himself in these situations. The only reason he could find for all of it was because he was a demon. And that just didn't seem fair. Not one bit. So perhaps he might have _once_ been a raving, senseless murderer but Yuugi strongly believed that being trapped in Hell for an undisclosed amount of time justified any of the difficulties he may have previously… encountered, yes that was the word, encountered. And perhaps he _may_ have lied more than once in his past few days of consciousness, and probably a few more times even before that, but this was also justifiable in ways he felt didn't even need to be discussed they were so obvious. And so what if he was perfectly ready to burn each and every one of these centaurs to crisps if they tried to do what he thought they wanted to do, all this and more were no reasons to point sharp sticks in his direction.

Because he was a good demon. Yes he was.

Yuugi was sure those purple berries he had eaten, or perhaps that bird-thing, were currently doing something kooky with his mind. He was even less sure whether that was a good thing or not.

A tall centaur with a chestnut body and short hair glared down at him, a stern mouth drawn tight and dark eyes narrowed with something that wasn't quite hostile but told Yuugi he wasn't someone who backed down easily.

Yuugi shifted his knees and held his wings slightly out from his body, ready to pounce if need be.

"Why have you done this?" the centaur spoke.

Yuugi raised an eyebrow, "Err… What?"

He gestured towards the half eaten bird just visible to Yuugi between the bars of legs. Yuugi blinked at it for a moment then replied with an ever intelligent, "Huh?"

"Our prize herd! That was a breeding female!"

Yuugi felt a little switch click into place, his gaze shot back up to the chestnut centaur, "Oh, they're yours?"

"Yes! Why did you kill our cattle?" he flourished an arm in apparent exasperation.

Yuugi found he really didn't have much of an excuse for this one other than the truth, "Errm, I was… hungry?"

"Hungry? Well so are–"

But yet another, larger switch of an ominous red colour had clicked in Yuugi's mind, causing him to interrupt, "Wait! So the bird is the reason you're threatening me?"

A frown, "Well obviously."

"So… so you don't want to kill me, maim me, or use me as some kind of weapon just because I'm a demon?" This was new.

There was an eruption of murmuring from the centaurs around him; they appeared confused, but not particularly frightened. Oh yeah, this was very new.

The chestnut centaur waited until the mutterings had faded until he spoke again, a little more interested then before, "So it's true? This isn't just the guise of some trickster?"

Yuugi laughed, though it sounded a little bitter to his ears, "If this were a guise I would have shed it a long time ago. My existence has been nothing but running and fighting since… well for as long as I can remember, simply because I am what I am."

"Which Clan do you hail from?" This time a different centaur had spoken, one with a jet black pelt and wild strands of black hair held by a red headband, a single earring hung from his left ear, sharp green eyes directed towards him.

This only gained him a blank look, "Clan?"

Yuugi was given the distinct impression he was missing out on something big when his question earned him some very strange looks, clearly knowing which demon clan he came from was too important just to skim over with a simple 'huh?' But this was getting both worrying and giving him a hope he wasn't sure should belong. It sounded as if these centaurs knew about him and his race, which he wasn't sure was a good thing, but at the same time if they knew about him then they could tell him things that otherwise he'd probably never find out on his own!

The black centaur looked thoughtful for a moment before asking, "Element? Would that make sense to you? What element do you have an affinity with?"

It clicked, "Oh! Fire, I can use fire. You know about me? Can you tell me what you know about the demons?"

But the chestnut scowled at him, "What kind of demon does not know which Clan he hails from? If you do not have proof that you are from the Fire Clan we will tell you nothing."

Yuugi set his teeth, "Fine."

Digging the claws of his hands into the top layer of the soft earth underneath, Yuugi decided he'd had enough of being spoken to like an idiot. Concentrating again on the fire in his stomach he called it forth, using energy that he shouldn't be spending while working on so little sleep. The golden flames flickered teasingly up from his claws and wrists, he gave a lopsided grin, a fang hooking over his lip, and fire burst from the ground under his hands, streaking along the grass in five separate lines and snaking under the centaur's legs. A considerable panic ensured, the centaurs braying and yelping, many rearing and galloping a considerable distance before getting hold of themselves.

Yuugi was rather enjoying himself until he heard a female voice shout, "Enough!" and he begrudgingly realised that if these centaurs were anything like elves then they would now be too pissed at him for damaging their pride to tell him anything. He recalled the fire, leaving behind only thin streaks of scorched earth in its wake.

"You have proven yourself to be a true demon." The woman was a centaur with much the same colouring as the chestnut, only with bright blue eyes that spoke of clarity and patience.

"And?" Yuugi asked, wondering what exactly her point was.

"We will take you to the Patriarch now." She nodded her head sagely and turned her back on him, heading the way they must have come. He noticed the other centaurs had regrouped themselves and, with many disgruntled glares in his direction, were following her, the chestnut and black centaur just behind her.

Deciding there was little he stood to loose, Yuugi trotted after them.

* * *

The journey was quiet. Yuugi spoke a little to them to decide if he could trust what they said, he had long begun to walk alongside the three that had spoken to him; they continued to do so occasionally, speaking in calm tones. What he had heard seemed generally trustworthy, though, and they didn't seem like a rogue bunch, nor like a people that would use him. Their airs where… surprisingly gentle compared to the anger he was shown before. He was beginning to believe that it really _was_ the loss of the bird that had them riled up.

The female was the nicest, he decided, she spoke with a maternal affection in her voice and seemed the most likely to want to open up to him. Her name was Anzu, and though he wasn't sure what it was supposed to mean, he gathered the name meant something to her tribe. The sullen chestnut that had walked suspiciously close to her side all the way was apparently named Honda, Yuugi quickly evaluated his character as a fighter, not a talker. And the dark one with the green eyes had introduced himself as Otogi, his earring was that of a die, and appeared the most interested in him from what Yuugi guessed was a historical point of view, if the awkward questions about a past he couldn't remember meant anything at all.

Eventually they crested a hill, thick with lush grass that liked to tangle his claws and catch at his tail as he walked, to come into view of the current residence of the tribe. They were apparently a nomadic bunch, and moved with the seasons. Their village was a quaint and pleasant picture, tall cone tents dotted numerously around the site, a makeshift paddock holding more of those long-legged running birds, racks of material drying in the wind, a large circle of small rocks surrounded the wood that would be burned tonight. At the head of the village there was a larger, more elaborate, looking tent. This was where they lead him.

The stares and blatant whispering behind hands directed towards the supposedly extinct demon walking in their midst made Yuugi feel extremely uncomfortable as he passed through the village. He tried to make himself as small as possible and quickened his pace so he kept up with his guides. There was quite the following of villagers by the time they reached the entrance to the most elaborate tent on the far side, the Patriarch's apparently.

Honda stopped him abruptly from entering by placing a calloused hand on his shoulder and tugging him back.

"You will wait until we have spoken to him first." Was the stern command.

Yuugi decided that to argue the point would be futile, as much as he hated being spoken to like that there was little he could do, especially if he wanted to stay in their favour for long enough for them to tell him everything they knew. After that he could do whatever he wanted, was his only satisfactory consolation.

So as Anzu, Honda and Otogi followed each other into the tent's entrance, covered by a drape of thick fabric that looked to Yuugi as if it were once animal hide, he was left stood lonely out in the open with a couple of hundred centaurs watching him as if he were a scientific experiment about to do something extremely volatile.

… How pleasant.

Minutes passed, for something to do Yuugi strained his ears to see if he could hear them speak, he should be able to with his enhanced hearing, but they must have been aware of this, for they were talking in hushed tones and he could discern only small fragments of the conversation. Disjointed phrases and half sentences that he could make no sense of.

But he heard something interesting, the repeated word 'elf' and references to the north. Yuugi shuffled his feet uneasily, how could they have known where he had come from? He hadn't let it slip had he? No, he would have remembered, but then, surely, this had to be coincidence. Maybe the elves had recently done something to anger the centaurs and the issue was still important enough to be addressed before the news of finding him. A pair of red eyes appeared in his mind's eye, and the frighteningly knowing look he was sure he had seen on the face of the prince as he'd watched Yuugi fly away, made him bite his lip, his wings twitched in restlessness. What if the prince had put two and two together and realised what he was? It would have been a wild guess, surely, but a plausible one. What if the elves had some way of communicating with the centaurs, which was faster than how he travelled? If they had been told about his actions in the north then they would mostly likely either reject him or try to capture him for reasons unknown. After all, who would want to act cordial around someone responsible for a massacre?

Perhaps he should fly away now, they'd probably never catch him. But then he'd never find out what he might have lost by doing so. Torn two ways by tormented thoughts Yuugi didn't even hear the approaching hooves until a second hand touched his shoulder. Yuugi started, whipping around to face his attacker, before remembering where he was and why.

Anzu looked at him, concerned, before saying, "He will see you now." And turning her back on him to head into the camp, Honda and Otogi were trying to disperse the crowd.

With a deep breath Yuugi pulled aside the cloth door and stepped inside the tent.

The inside was welcoming enough, a large circular rug, decorated with deep red and yellow threads, took up most of the floor. Strange implements and ceremonial devises fringed the circumference and a small hole in the very top of the cone tent apparently allowed the smoke from fires and pipes to escape without having to open the door, if the thin atmosphere of misty smoke and the thick fragrance of some kind of burnt plant meant anything.

Sat just off centre, behind a low twisted wood table covered in strange cloths and crushed plants, was an old centaur. A head of thick dark grey hair and a greying coat, lightly tanned skin wrinkled with age and exposure, and a pair of sharp violet eyes full of the wisdom only age can accomplish.

He smiled at Yuugi and spread his arms to beckon him from standing awkwardly by the entrance, "Come child, sit and be comfortable. We have a long talk ahead of us."

Yuugi sat tentatively opposite him with the table between them; the old centaur was contemplating him over the ash glow of the pipe he was smoking, giving Yuugi the uncomfortable feeling that he knew everything already.

He supposed it might help if he tried to extend the first pleasantry, "My name is Yuugi. Err… I'm sorry for killing that bird… if you're still very angry."

There was a pause in which Yuugi became tense, thinking he had already said something wrong, but then the old centaur chuckled, "It is quite alright, Yuugi, I am sure you did not know it was ours, she was a stray after all. And long journeys can't be easy on anyone."

Yuugi watched him carefully, "How…?"

"Did I know? Well it's a certain skill we have, and to put it plainly I've never seen anyone quite as worn looking as yourself, no one who has a home or travels at a gentle pace can look quite so haggard."

Yuugi looked down at the rug, he hadn't come here to be insulted.

"You may call me Solomon. And you my friend have a lot of explaining to do. Perhaps beginning with how a long dead race can suddenly reappear in our hunting grounds? Demons have not been seen for many millennia, no one believed we would see them again."

Yuugi shook his head, "I know very little. I woke up only days ago with no memory of anything to find I was, and am, completely alone. I was confused, lost, I did not know what I was doing, and I killed many goblins in this haze, some elves too. I was imprisoned by them, and rescued by the elves who cared only for each other and did not know what I was, I ran from them. And all I can remember with any certainty is my name and that I am a fire demon."

The centaur took a long drag of his pipe, puffing the smoke out in artful rings towards the hole in the tent's top, "A dire situation for one to find himself in. To have escaped what befell the others now seems less of a gift."

"Then do you know what happened to my people? Can you tell me how and why they are all dead?" Yuugi asked quickly, leaning forward in excitement.

But Solomon shook his grey head with a sad expression, "Your race are shrouded in mystery. My dear boy," he added when he saw the defeated expression cross Yuugi's face, "I will tell you what we know. And try to elaborate with what we believe but the rest I am afraid is your own secret."

"My own?" Yuugi asked, confused.

Solomon laughed, "Demons are legendary at keeping themselves to themselves. What you discover on this journey you are no doubt about to take will be only a rumour to us, whether you mean to or not you will keep yourself hidden, in both body and mind."

Yuugi dropped his gaze; he was already doing that wasn't he? With the elves. They all thought he was human. "But I told you what happened to me." He argued.

"Only out of desire to learn more from us. A trade of information I believe." Noticing Yuugi's frown he said, "Do not take offence, it is your nature to be withdrawn from other races. We remember all those eons ago that though demons were rarely seen, secretive and silent, when we did meet they were surprisingly well mannered and friendly. Much unlike the elves who boast and display every aspect of themselves for the entire world to grovel to. Unlike elves, demons were respected not because they had power but because they didn't use such power needlessly to show off. The world remembers how powerful demons were, but loss of control was so rarely seen that their magic became more legend then reality. Of course demons themselves were so rarely seen anyway that it didn't take much for people's imaginations to try and fill in the gaps. And after all, well mannered or not, the demons were still a dangerous race to get involved with."

Yuugi hung his head as he thought about what Solomon had said and remembering how many times he had lost control, had he disgraced them by his actions?

A hand was placed on his shoulder, Yuugi looked up to see the centaur was smiling at him, "Whatever you have done," he said, "I am sure they would forgive you. Your circumstances have gone beyond the normal."

Yuugi gave a half hearted smile, taking comfort in the words of someone who seemed to know him better then he knew himself. How did the centaurs gather all this history?

"But enough of that," Solomon continued, refilling his pipe, "you came to hear what we know of the demon's last days, not my own theories on demon behaviour." He chuckled to himself before adopting a solemn expression, "From what you have told me it is clear that you were imprisoned long before they began to vanish. It began with the fire demons that once belonged to the great desert far to the south of here. We don't know exactly when or how but it was clear to those very few people that witnessed their movement's year in and year out that the demons weren't where they should be. A band of humans, who had once been lucky enough to have connections with the Fire Clan, travelled far into the desert to see what had become of them. They only found that their city had fallen to ruin and the entrance into their sacred grounds had been sealed by a stone door with seven oddly shaped indentations. There were no fire demons left in the entire desert.

"This unexplainable disappearance was soon repeated far to the north. The ice demons were next to vanish. The elves, who had long been in a feud with the Ice Clan, reported that seemingly overnight the entire clan ceased to exist.

"After that the rest seemed to fall like dominos. The earth demons vanished from the woods, the air demons from their mountain top temples, water demons were never seen again, not even by the merpeople who are to date the only race to get so close to becoming friends of a demon clan. The other, nomadic clans of lightning, weather, and metal, and others we never recorded, followed in the same fashion until the world seemed empty of a presence that had been there before the elves, humans, centaurs, goblins, and even merpeople had even begun to exist."

Yuugi sat in silence for a long time after Solomon had finished, listening to the old centaur puffing at his pipe and thinking hard about what he had heard. His mind focused on the mention of the Fire Clan's sacred grounds.

"The door you mentioned," Yuugi began, "The one with seven indentations that blocked off part of the Fire Clan's city. Why would they seal off the sacred grounds?"

"I would not know," Solomon spoke slowly, "but I believe, that for someone who is searching for their past, what is behind that door would be an excellent place to start. However, you would need the keys."

"What keys?"

"The ones that will open the door. There are seven of them, each one fits a separate slot in the stone."

Yuugi frowned to himself, there was something about the mentioning of 'seven' that reminded him of something. "And where will I find them?"

Solomon smiled, "Ah, now that is the ironic part. You have journeyed from the far north to find your home and yet you must turn back around and return there if you want a hope of learning anything about it. It is common knowledge among the centaurs that the elves, many centuries ago, came into possession of six of the seven keys. The elves do not know what they are, the records of the keys true reason of existence remains only with us. Where the seventh is, we do not know. You will have to find that yourself."

Yuugi glared at the fire, "I have to go back to those elves?"

"Yes."

He sighed heavily, wings drooping tiredly, "At least it isn't with the goblins."

Solomon laughed, "That's the spirit."

* * *

Their conversation had gone on for many hours; Yuugi enjoyed the chance to have a real talk with someone, having felt starved of any connections to reality. Yuugi had not managed to unearth anything more of any particular interest from Solomon, and he was given the strong impression that he had been told the most important parts anyway, so he did not press the subject and instead asked where the elves kept the keys to the door and what such keys looked like. Solomon was not able to give a very satisfactory answer, the centaurs only knew of the certain existence of the keys; the elves had cloistered them for so long, but he said it was almost positive they would be in the palace treasures. They did not know what each individual key was like in appearance, other then that they were certain they were made of solid gold, and were uncertain as to weather the keys themselves possessed any unusual powers that would define or identify them. There were certainly myths and fireside stories about such powers, but all of which sounded implausible.

It was late into the afternoon by the time Solomon told Yuugi that he should rest. They gave him a spare, empty tent for the night and Yuugi was overjoyed to find a large platter of meats, fish, fruits and cooked vegetables waiting for him there. He quite literally polished the plate of food before anyone had a chance to tell him otherwise. The gifts didn't stop there either; next to the platter was a small wicker basket of soaps and scented herbs, bathing stuffs. There was a waterfall and river that Anzu lead him too after his dinner, and even though immersing himself in water was inherently uncomfortable for him, Yuugi took great pleasure in spending a good deal of time in the waterfall's plunge pool, using the scented soaps scraping off the dirt that had accumulated during the fights and running through caves, chasing the silver fish that darted away from him with dazzlingly pretty silver flashes until with the sky dark under the pall of dusk he returned, feeling warm and clean, with a full belly and with a purpose in mind, to the tent to fell almost immediately onto the pillows and rugs in a dead sleep.

* * *

Yuugi wasn't sure what woke him the next morning, but he knew he had slept for hours, like a log or some very contented demon-shaped rock. He was rested, warm, and oh so very comfortable; the urge to just snuggle deeper into the soft pillows and fall back to sleep was almost overwhelming.

But a little something was tugging at the back of his mind, and it wasn't letting him go.

Rolling over to face the door to the tent Yuugi pried open both of his eyes and peered groggily at the shoulder bag resting innocently on the floor, he hadn't noticed it last night, or at least he hadn't noticed the centaurs bringing it in while he floated off into dreams. Watching it for a while he eventually realised he was going to have to move to see what was inside, and so with great reluctance he uncurled himself from the mass of blankets, pillows and rugs, and crawled over to the item. Inside was a substantial collection of dried meats and fruits. Yuugi smiled sleepily to himself, at least now he wouldn't have to starve on his way back north.

Yet that wasn't what the little voice at the back of his mind had gotten him up for.

Holding the leather bag straps loosely in his hand Yuugi stumbled, his mind still half asleep and his body stubbornly telling him that bed was where he needed to be, over to the loose drapes of fabric that made the door. He parted the fabric and gazed up at the pale sky, it wasn't quite dawn, the sun was just an inch below the dark horizon, and half the sky was bleached a pale, pale blue in the east, streaks of wispy white clouds, whose under edges were stained golden yellow, cast long shadows in the sky.

There was noise coming from his right. Voices.

He glanced over, already recognising Solomon's voice but not the second who spoke with an out of place aloofness. The aged centaur was stood just outside his large tent, flanked by Anzu and Honda, and speaking quietly to an equally aged man, behind him was a large group of young men dressed suspiciously as soldiers.

No… wait a minute… Yuugi scrunched his eyes as if he would see the men better that way; he knew that armour from somewhere, it was so familiar it was hitting him over the head with a flaming mallet and yet for the life of him he was still too sleepy to think clearly and he couldn't recall exactly where he had seen it.

He took a step out into the cool morning air, hoping it would help him wake up more, but the old man saw his movement from the corner of his eye and span his gaze round to see him.

He stumbled backwards with a yelp. Yuugi blinked at him before he remembered with a feeling of dread that his appearance was not quite normal, his wings unconsciously sunk tightly behind him, and he was suddenly very conscious of his claws and tail.

The man's lips formed words in disbelief, "A demon?"

And then Yuugi's mind cleared enough to see the man and his soldiers properly, and he froze in horror.

The elfin army had found him.

The elf had recovered before him, eyes narrowing in panic and hate, a spear of ice was suddenly hurtling towards Yuugi, and it was only luck that the aim was a little off for the reason he was still standing. Hissing in pain he grasped his arm where the point had opened a long, narrow gash as it whooshed past to embed itself into the ground behind him.

The tiny squadron was mobilising quickly, Yuugi glanced over to Solomon, at a complete loss as to what he could do without fighting and curious as to why the centaur was not defending him.

Solomon had been trying to get his attention, his eyes frantic and worried, mouthing desperately the word, "Run!"

Yuugi took that as his queue to get lost. It was an unpleasant farewell, Yuugi had planned on thanking the centaurs for the only kindness he had been shown, but circumstances where, as per usual, against him.

So with only a curt nod in the direction of Solomon, Anzu and Honda, Yuugi crouched, spread his wings, and shot high into the air with a single almighty flap. He grinned to himself in exhilaration, it was amazing what wonders a full stomach and a good nights sleep could do.

Below him, he heard the old elf shouting orders to shoot at him, but he was too high already. It was a new day, and he needed to get as far away as possible, he may as well begin the journey north now rather than later, he had his supplies, he had his plan, all he needed now was a certain little elfin prince to pull it off.

Angling his wings purposefully he soared through the brightening sky, taking a deep breath and grinning. Despite the problem with people continuously trying to kill him, life was good.

And the prince was about to make it even better. He just didn't know it yet.

* * *

"_I don't understand. Why haven't you told him? Atemu loves you, he'll think that you–"_

"_Abandoned him? Yeah, sounds about right."_

"…_What?"_

"_Nothing. It's nothing. You know when Mariku's getting here?"_

"_Wha- err tomorrow morning I think. And you can't just change the subject this time Yuugi. What's going on?"_

"_Nothing. Pass me that armlet please."_

"_Has Atemu done something?"_

"_Nope."_

"_Then I don't understand. Aren't you seeing him tonight?"_

"_Probably not."_

"_Huh?"_

"_Look, Ryou, it's none of your business alright? Just stay out of it!" _

**AN: **Thus far this has only been half betad, the rest should be done tomorrow but I wanted this up tonight so I could say I finished it for Atemu Yugi Lover34 because apparently it's her 17th today! So happy birthday! Sorry I didn't get to the puzzleshipping yet but belive it or not we are very close, I've even started writing it! Plus if we don't get there soon I think my beta might hit me with one of those flaming mallets and demand her yaoi lol (damn woman has been poisoning my mind all night on msn, now all I can think about is a Yu-Gi-Oh cross over with 'Lady and the Tramp'... with Yami as Lady... yes you heard me right. It won't happen though, or at least it'll never reach online status lol).

If you review there will be another update (hopefully) before new year and the romance (in the next chap after that) will reach you before the 14th! So I recomend you review.

**Review!**


	11. Chapter Ten

**AN: **Yes the first scene is fanservice, I will admit. Although inspired by my beta who asked if he could be naked in this chapter. So I realised he could. Just think about it for a moment: Yami, elf worrier prince Yami, in a bath, naked, hair around his shoulders, naked, one of the few men that can make scarred sexy, naked, brooding darkly, _dripping wet_, and, oh, did I forget to mention naked?

**Firefly In Ice**

**Chapter 10**

_"I can't believe… Yuugi wouldn't…"_

"_And how do you know he wouldn't, Atemu?"_

"_Because believe it or not, Seth, I haven't been in a three month long relationship with a stranger. I know he wouldn't do any of those things."_

"_Didn't you listen to a word of what I just said? Yuugi is a demon. A fire demon! They aren't exactly known for their compassion!"_

"_And what do you know about fire demons Seth, other than what the children's stories tell us?"_

"_I know a damn sight more than you!"_

"_How? I know one intimately, you haven't met one in your life!"_

"_But unlike you, I read the accounts of our people, I listen to the stories told by travellers and scholars alike. And they don't land in Yuugi's favour. Whatever he has you believing is clearly an act."_

"_Silence!"_

"_It's all a lie. Everything he's told you is a lie!"_

* * *

The water was comforting on his nerves. It pooled around his irritated skin and lapped at his slowly healing wounds, as a mother wolf would care for her cub, it cooled the burn that screeched pain at him whenever he tried to move his hand and warmed the stiff chill that had settled over his exhausted muscles.

Yami closed his eyes, letting go of a lungful of air with a deep sigh. These times of the day were easiest, it was not the escape from his problems that riding gave him, but it was quiet contemplation, calming and easy, without any interruptions and without any outside annoyances. The evening, where everything wound down and began to settle in. Yami turned his head on the folded towel it was resting on to look out of the cavernous arched widows of the royal bathhouse, the building was situated high up in the palace, set into the rock of the mountain the city rested in the shadow of, and the palace rested against, looming over them with its snow smoothened edges so half the city was always cast under gentle shadow. The bathhouse was one of the highest places you could get within the city, connected directly to the mountain's spring, and offered views capable of taking away the breath of even someone who had seen it everyday.

Currently the sky was inked with a spectrum of deep colours, almost black in the east, still a sapphire blue in the west. Stars were beginning to unveil themselves in the oncoming night, bright constellations Yami could spend many a lazy hour here finding and drawing out with a finger.

Sometimes, he really wanted to kill his Father. The foolish man had broken the last straw with his latest action. Appointing a new grand advisor without even informing him of the plans to do so, he was the crowned prince, the heir to this kingdoms throne, one day it would all be his and his alone, but until then his Father was supposed to treat him with more respect. He was supposed to involve his son, supposed to add to his education, encourage and engage him in court matters and royal proceedings, instead Yami often felt he was only there because he was, unfortunately, a necessary fixture of such proceedings.

Instead, Yami was forced into private classrooms, confined to his room, forced to train as one of the Elite and apprentice under the greatest magic users in the kingdom, and for what? To command the eighth regiment? That was hardly worth all the work he had poured into his training.

It was because of this that Yami had become a worrier before he had become a prince. True he was born one, he was raised as one, but he was not treated as one by his family. The rest of the kingdom bowed at his feet: his Father believed he could still be pacified with a group of toy soldiers.

And Pegasus. A stranger elf he had never met. All politeness and smiles, offhand statements no one else seemed to notice or think of as odd and with a way of moving that made Yami think of some kind of lizard. Lazy and controlled, yet too quick on the draw to be considered the wizened elder everyone assumed him to be. White or silver hair only came to an elf in their late twilight years, but Pegasus neither acted nor felt like someone in their eight hundreds. He would have to keep an eye on him, Yami had a feeling about him that rung with distrust. The elf had an eye that spoke volumes more than what he said, a shadowed look whispered behind the iris that Yami suspected came from frequent magic abuse. A dangerous elf. And yet, according to his Father, a strong willed and trustworthy person that had come to them in their hour of need to his own expense.

If Pegasus was that good, Yami thought to himself with a scowl, then why hadn't they heard of him before?

He lifted his knee to straighten the leg and relieve the slight pressure the wound in his side was causing, feeling the water flowing around his bare skin and the smoothed grey rock he was using as a perch to relax in this small lake sized bath of fresh mountain spring water. Yami winced when the pressure lifted only after an extra painful stabbing sensation. Damned goblins and their poison tipped swords, making it impossible for elfin healing magic to keep a firm hold on the wound. It was only half healed, the poison the goblin's specialised in made it so inflictions could only be closed naturally (the idea being that you would be dead before then), and six of their best healers forcing all their power into the area had allowed it to heal the halfway. The burn had also been treated, but again the cause of it had been an unnatural flame from an unknown source, without knowing what magic had caused it meant not knowing how to heal it.

Damned goblins. Dammed mysterious flaming beasts.

Yami closed his eyes, trying to find the relaxed state he was in before. A glint of the colour amethyst glinted in his eyes as the lids closed.

Yami jolted up again, wildly searching for the cause of the colour, but his gaze landed on a small section of stained glass in the rose shaped window above him, the setting sun catching it in such a way that it glimmered brighter than the rest.

Yami groaned at his own skittish stupidity, he needed to get some sleep!

God dammed dead human and his pretty way of looking up at Yami when asking for help.

Determined to be permanently rid of the images keeping him awake Yami took a deep, angered breath, and submerged himself entirely into the water, running the fingers of his un-burnt hand through his thick hair with vigorous scrubbing. Emerging only when he was about to run out of air and he was soaked completely, his hair now dripping wet and down upon his bare shoulders and back.

Clearing his mind in the way he was taught when he was first learning to control his magic, Yami settled back into the stone perch, submerged to his shoulders in water, and leaned his head back to doze on the folded towel.

And as the barriers of his mind weakened the more relaxed he became, the more he could almost feel the soft skin of the human's hand upon his own. The brighter his bejewelled eyes became in his minds eye, the clearer his sweet vulnerability was when in the face of danger.

The more vivid his chiming bell of a voice became. And words replayed themselves in his ears as his minds eye saw the scene of a few nights ago, _"Help me, please."_

The words were so real, so close and surely spoken in his ear that Yami started again with a sharp gasp. Viciously tearing himself from the image and remembered sound and feel of the boy, he hit the water with a shout of rage. Accidentally using his burnt hand and hissing when the impact caused agony to claw at his nerves.

In all the Realms what was _wrong_ with him? Why was his mind becoming so fixated on a silly little human boy, no matter how damned pretty he was? He was a freaking Prince! What did it matter to _him_ if the boy was dead? What did his fate, and how he came to meet it, have to do with him?

Pulling himself out of the water, clear rivulets of liquid dripping from his skin and running down his body, where some of it caught painfully on the stab wound, Yami snatched up the bottle of scented powder used after a bath, and, in a desperate rage, threw it against the nearest wall. Watching the violet glass shatter and the white powder explode into the air, knowing it would do little good to make himself feel better.

"Get _over_ it!" He hissed to himself, "A boy. He's just a human boy with no significance or meaning in life other than as fodder for the goblin's greed. He's dead and he's gone. He is _not_ coming back!"

But, somehow, even his own words didn't feel right to him anymore.

* * *

The next morning found Yami sitting wide awake on the edge of his mattress, elbows leaning on his knees and staring blankly out underneath his bed tousled hair towards the wall opposite him.

There was now a pair of faint shadowed circles under each eye. Although his bed sheets had been disturbed, he had not slept, his mind refused to disengage from wakefulness. Beside him sat an open book, an old tome he had hoped would have been boring enough to cure this insomnia, but no such luck. The backs of his eyelids seemed to have been imprinted with the image of the human boy, the pain of his injuries making it hard for him to get comfortable, and nothing but thoughts of the war and flaming beasts dominated the forefront of his mind.

All he wanted was to sleep, mindless deep sleep, but such a simple thing he had done so many times before, seemed like the hardest request of him now.

With heavy muscles weighing him down with fatigue, Yami stood from his bed and set about finding clothes for the day, the maid should have set them out, but he hadn't let anyone into his private rooms recently. He had been experiencing some very strange dreams in the few snatches of sleep he had managed, and he did not want anyone discovering exactly what they where the focus of. They were unsettling enough in the way that he had never dreamt of anything quite so… primal before, the last thing he needed was another person spreading the words of the Prince's inability to control his desires.

Jounouchi was stood outside his door, on bodyguard duty as usual. And followed Yami without a word as soon as the Prince left the room. A silent shadow of a sentinel that was grating on Yami's nerves due purely to his lack of sleep. But it was no use trying to get rid of the bodyguard; Jounouchi had been given higher orders from the King that Yami was never to be left unattended in case of some kind of attack being launched upon the Prince's life. Yami was only annoyed by this, he was pretty sure he could take care of himself well enough to walk around his own home. He didn't need a babysitter.

Yami paused outside of the huge library double doors as they opened before he had time to pass. He was immediately set on edge by the emergence of Pegasus, his silver hair falling thickly over the right side of his face and hiding it from view.

Yami stood stock still, his arms folded over his chest as Pegasus saw him and let a sickeningly sweet smile cross his face.

He nodded to the Prince, "Good morning, Your Highness. Coming to search for a good read I see? I find nothing quite relaxes me as well as a good leather bound volume. There is something about its heavy solidity I find most reassuring. Good day, Sir."

And with that he was off down the corridor and gone before Yami could find any words to say in return. Again there was nothing noticeably wrong with what Pegasus had said, it appeared perfectly normal on the surface, even if he were a little eccentric. But there was always an underlying current of something that set Yami on edge, and for the life of him he couldn't pinpoint its source. Perhaps he was just being paranoid in his sleepless state.

The library was as cavernous and as well cared for as the last time he had visited it, though it did take Yami a moment to adjust to the sheer size of the room, it had been a while now since he'd bothered to come here. Even if it did take up probably the largest part of the palace.

Maybe here he would find a reason for his recent mental and emotional instability.

Yet halfway down the main corridor to the heart of the library, Yami suddenly noticed a distinct lack of Jounouchi walking behind him. Stopping dead, he turned and watched Jounouchi with a confused and annoyed scowl. The guard had stopped walking about half a very long corridor away, and was staring up at one of the many portraits that hung in alcoves and gaps in the endless expanses of books.

This one was a royal family portrait, identifiable by the gold and ruby frame.

Curious now, Yami walked back to where Jounouchi was stood and followed the line of his gaze.

And became instantly uninterested.

His recently late cousin, Seto, glowered down at them from his portrait. Yami could almost see the mocking sneer that was always just below the surface of Seto's skin. Taken down in battle not months ago by a well-aimed goblin arrow, tipped in poison, and straight to the heart.

Yami's first thought upon hearing about his cousin's demise was the thought that at least now Seto's physical self was as poisoned as the rest of him had always been. An arrogant bastard of an elf, sore over having the King's brother for a father and not the King himself, had always sought to out do Yami at every turn, as if becoming better than him would make him a next in line instead of Yami. Yami had never been able to stand him.

He glanced back at Jounouchi and felt his lip curl in disgust at the look the blond guard was giving the portrait. If Jounouchi was just going to stand here and lament the loss of his lover then Yami was not interested in being near him.

Yami turned impatiently and was about to continue his search for useful texts when something caught his eye. Within the alcove that Seto's portrait rested was a reading table, one of the many scattered around the room, and a small chair. It was the large book upon that table, left open to a page dedicated to a full colour illustration, which had him interested.

Approaching the table, Yami sat and pulled the book closer to himself, studying the hand drawn picture and running a finger lightly over the extraordinary artwork. He had never seen this before, but considering the sheer volume of books within the library, that came as no huge surprise to him.

The subject of the image was of a large slab of sandstone, intricately carved so that he could almost feel the curves of the mason's work, several hollow shapes were the centre of focus upon the stone, each one a different and curious shape. Stood upon the sandy stone floor at its base were a small number of scattered figures, not elfin, human, or even centaur, but something far older.

Yami leaned closer, scrutinising the shapes of the tiny figures, and muttered to himself, "Demons?"

How old was this book?

Keeping his page, Yami lifted the left side of the book to see the front cover. It was bound in dark green scaly leather, most likely imitation dragon hide, with mock gold clasps holding tight to its corners and an old gold latch to hold the two covers together when closed. Embossed upon its surface in old style elfish was the golden title 'Ancient Tales for The Searching Mind.'

Well that explained a few things. The book wasn't ancient, though still older than himself. That explained the image of an extinct race. There were many elfin historians that were fascinated over the demons and their mysterious disappearance. It was the main, serious, unanswerable mystery still alive today. This book had to be no more than speculation, but it was unlikely it contained anything of true value to him.

Yami turned a page over from the illustration lazily, not expecting to find a long silver hair trapped within the spine there. Frowning at it Yami glanced at the text on the page, nothing of any great interest leapt out at him, but just to be sure…

Yami held his hand hovering just over the page and the hair, narrowing his eyes and invoking his tracer magic. A misty, familiar aura met his senses and his frown deepened, "Pegasus?"

It could be no one else. But what interest would a Grand Advisor have in ancient almost mythology? What use would stories and speculation be?

Yami decided that he would keep the book and look through it more thoroughly, to see if he could find out exactly that.

* * *

Yami could only have wished that his afternoon were as easy as the morning. Unfortunately, as seemed to always be the case, it was not to be.

Word came to them swiftly of another goblin assault upon the city walls.

And just as swift was the transition from calmly turning pages in his study, to mounting a fully armoured horse with a sword at his side and a regiment behind him. Yami had ignored the advise to stay out of the battle, the words that his wounds would hamper him and cause him to become so much more vulnerable, he wasn't about to sit back and let everyone else take the glory.

The iron gates were lifted, Yami kicked the horse's side to spur it into a fast trot, behind him, two hundred and fifty soldiers did the same. Riding out was a simple and dangerous business that made the heart trip in fear and excitement and the blood run thick with adrenaline. He was not the first to ride today, his father (leading the first regiment) and the third regiment had already left through the north and west gates respectively. He was to leave out the east and circle round by the edge of the forest in the hopes of rounding the goblins up into a more solid mass that was easier to kill. The rest of the army would follow after.

Riding out into the bright sun, everything blanketed in crisp white that magnified light and reflected it a hundred fold from every surface and seemed to encompass silence within itself, Yami blinked to clear his vision of rogue snowflakes kicked up by the horses' hooves. Knowing that the battlements upon the city walls were thick with archers ready to defend the city, Yami spurred his horse from a trot into a gallop and felt the smooth leather reigns familiar under his fingers. This was his element; he knew it like it was a part of him. The snow around him, the horse beneath, and a world ahead.

They had to win this battle. If not… he didn't want to think about it.

He heard the iron gates falling shut behind him, the reinforced doors being forced into place and locked behind them. The city was secure; there was no way in or out now. The sound of a thousand hooves followed him as he reached the point where he was to turn and run along the edge of the woods, the trees were thinly spread here, it was the beginning of the forest, but he angled the horse to run parallel to them.

Now he could see the advancing goblins before them, a solid mass of black and distasteful smells. Chattering and screeching to each other in battle cries. The Grey Mountain rose in the distance; this was a part of the forest where he had found that aura.

It was then that the realisation hit him, only when he was charging out to battle, his body working off adrenaline and his mind's usual sharpness blunted by fatigue, did the events finally clink together in his mind.

The strange aura he had felt in the forest, the one that had mutilated those goblins and left their corpses to rot, was the same as the one the flaming beast had left behind! He wanted to hit himself for his stupidity, he wanted a moment to sit and brood over this new revelation in his study, but now he could not. There was a battle to win.

Out of the corner of his eye he could see his Father already engaging combat with the brunt of the goblin army, so drawing his curved sword, pushing magic into the ancient elfish words emblazoned upon the blade's surface so they shimmered a haunting white-blue with power, he drew the first line of soldiers up to his level. And commanded the charge.

The goblins had braced for the attack, setting pikes in the ground to impale the horses on impact, and though Yami knew many horses would not make it past, he wondered how the goblins could still underestimate the horses the elves kept. Beasts of extraordinary intelligence and a little magic of their own running through their veins. It was impossible for any mortal horse to outrun or manoeuvre them. His horse simply braced herself, and leapt clear over the tall pikes as if it were as simple as pulling hey from the feeding box.

It took less time than expected; the goblins were spread more thinly here than around the front and Yami's sword had barely tasted blood by the time he and his soldiers had gained the upper hand. His swipes were aimed and true, the blade a stream of light through the air that burned the goblin's blood off of itself even as it pierced a heart or sliced through a limb. The goblins were shrinking back from the forest, his regiment hounding them away, hacking down the stragglers. A few elfin horses lay injured or dead, a small number of soldiers too, but the loss was still relatively small compared to what it could have been.

Amidst the chaos, Yami caught a glimpse of a small number of goblins that had escaped the rounding up and where still very close to the forest, sniffing around the bodies left behind. Killing the injured, turning over their bodies for whatever wealth they may hold on their person. Tugging on his mare's reins sharply, he turned her around, gave the command to the others to keep going, if these goblins were left alive there could be some serious trouble later from them.

Charging towards each individual in turn he finished each and headed for another. But fate was not with him this day, it seemed. One of the goblins had prepared itself for his attack, it had positioned an arrow within the short bow, pulled back the stiff string, and loosed it before Yami had chance to reach the goblin with his blade.

The black arrow shot through the air with so much speed it sent Yami's horse into a panic when it just caught the edge of her ear. Yami grunted in pain as it erupted from his shoulder, nearly knocked clean off his horse as the arrow embedded itself just below his collarbone. The blade fell from his hand, and the goblin fled for its life.

In panic the horse reared, and Yami, exhausted as he was, did not have time to brace himself and hold on. She stood almost vertically, braying loudly and beating the air with her front hooves, until the buckles that held the heavy armoured saddle to her back snapped under the heavy, twisting pressure and sent Yami falling clean off her back, saddle and all. Still panicked, the mare righted her self and cantered deep into the forest, leaving only a trail of kicked up snow behind her.

Yami clutched his shoulder where the arrow still clung, he grasped the thick wooden shaft as his blood pooled in the wound and seeped into his clothes, but had no strength to pull it out and eliminate the source of the spreading poison that was paralysing his arm. Perhaps it hadn't been so smart to enter battle already injured.

He gasped for breath and sharp pain from the back of his skull told him he really didn't have the softest landing, little black spots appearing in front of his eyes told him he was now in serious danger of losing consciousness. Groaning, Yami tried to focus and get up, but the wound would not let him and his body was so steeped in fatigue due the past few days that he was having serious difficulty finding any kind of will power at all.

He turned his head to the side when a faint rustle reached his ears, seeing the forest just before him. Oh, that was perfect, he was going to get eaten by some animal now just to add to the humiliation.

Just when the poison and blood loss finally took its full toll on him and caused his mind to give into a dead faint, he saw a blurred figure watching him, half hidden behind the forest vegetation. He was unreasonably soothed by the sight of those haunting amethyst eyes, the feeling of being found and suddenly safe let him drift off without a fight.

* * *

"_You've never even met him. You wouldn't understand. He would never lie to me."_

"_Prove it."_

"_He loves me."_

"_That isn't love, little cousin, that's lust. Fire demons are passionate, as their element defines, but they do not love. He feels lust for you, you mistake it for love because you are blinded by your own infatuation."_

"_The rumours of fire demons and their clan are just that: rumours. All you are doing is regurgitating them to try and dissuade me from finding a way too him. Yuugi will be waiting for me, I know he will."_

"_And what if he isn't? You haven't been allowed out of the palace for a week now, you have found no way of contacting him, he must think you've left him and become bored of waiting, he will have left."_

"_Yuugi wouldn't. He isn't the monster you paint him to be."_

"_If he does love you so much Atemu, then why doesn't he try to contact you then? He has wings doesn't he? Why doesn't he fly in under the cover of night?"_

"_Because he isn't stupid! He understands what would happen to me if he were caught in my bedroom."_

"_He's lying to you."_

"_I would never give myself to someone like that. The Yuugi you describe is not the Yuugi that loves me, I will prove it. He would never… do any of those things you've described to me… never."_

**AN: **Hope that was alright and that you are holding onto your hats for the next chapter. Lots of bonding for our favourate two.

Have an awesome new year everyone!

**And don't forget to review!**


	12. Chapter Eleven

**AN: **Forgive the lateness of this chapter, and the crapiness, I'm not feeling very well and it's been rushed. But try and enjoy it anyway!

**Firefly In Ice**

**Chapter Eleven**

"… _Ryou?"_

"_What is it?… Yuugi?"_

"_There's… another reason I've been so quiet recently."_

"_Oh?"_

"_I… I just wanted to clear the air… before I go."_

"_You can trust me, Yuugi. What is it?"_

"_I – I might not be coming back north. Ever."_

* * *

The journey Yuugi took to return the way he had come felt far easier and much faster than he remembered, perhaps it was because this time he knew where he was going, how long it would take, and what he would find on the other side of the sea. Perhaps it was the food in his bag that kept his stomach from complaining or the prospect of finding out who he was. Or, maybe, it could have been the alleviation of the dark thoughts that had weighed him down before Solomon had given him hope.

Yuugi no longer felt helplessly lost, nor alone, in this strange and alien world. He sensed now that, once, he had belonged here just as anyone had, and all the elves rejection was based weakly on fear and misunderstanding. That didn't mean Yuugi was about to waltz into their city as he looked right now with these claims, he wasn't stupid and knew the elves where as likely to sit and listen to someone listing their faults as a fish was likely to grow legs and walk upright. But, his own conviction was a start.

He had dwelled long on what Solomon had told him, thought hard about how the centaurs received him without fear and without hate. He had been lucky, so lucky to have found them. Without them he would be wandering aimlessly throughout the grasslands, possibly travelling further south to find the desert Solomon had mentioned. But still without any purpose to guide him. With only a vague sense of needing to find something he had lost.

He felt his surroundings now with a greater acuteness than he had managed before. He felt the quality of the air, the heat of the sun, the moisture in the surroundings, the revolving stars. It seemed the longer he spent away from his prison, his hell, the more alive he became. Freedom suited him, wide open spaces and light suited him. Light. Yuugi had grown to love light with a passion, after the eternity of darkness and with his past still shrouded in shadows Yuugi yearned for lights quality, felt it and adored it with the affection of a kindred spirit. It might have something to do with his element, this love for light, but spending so much time imprisoned in pure darkness certainly didn't harm his growing appreciation of it.

But above all of this was the greatest feeling that was coursing through him. The hope, the new belief, that he wasn't unnatural at all. Solomon had said that all the demons, every clan upon this earth, had vanished as completely as he had himself. It was true that Solomon had said Yuugi must have been imprisoned long before the others started disappearing, but that hitch could easily be explained away with the idea that he might have been an experiment to see how well whatever had happened would work. Perhaps he hadn't been so different, so unnatural in his ways that the others of his own kind had locked him away, perhaps it was something else entirely.

Perhaps it was the Shadows themselves.

Yuugi hadn't mentioned the Shadows to Solomon, deciding that if the old centaur didn't know about them, as indeed it seemed that no other creature alive today appeared to know about them, then he would not go into complicating things by mentioning them. If he did that he would have had to start talking about things he felt almost instinctively that other races should not know. The Shadows were a dangerous force, and that was all that Yuugi could clearly remember about them. They were dangerous, they were merciless, and they seemed to have an unbreakable link to demons that Yuugi could not pinpoint with his faulty memory. His conclusion was that the Shadows had taken them all away, and done to entire clans what they had done to him.

Yuugi wondered if they would eventually break free as he had done, or if his searching and bringing of the Keys to that Door would have any effect on it.

But that was far away now, for the present he still had to find and get the Keys. And that meant facing the elves. Yuugi had a little half formed plan that was still being formed and reformed in the back of his mind, he didn't really have a clue what he was doing, and most of this would be a mixture of his deception skills and sheer luck.

Yuugi hoped the prince was as he remembered him, hoped that he wouldn't be too hard to find and contact. If not than his other chance was Malik, but that option somehow didn't sound quite as appealing as the prince himself. Yuugi wasn't sure why. He just felt that he knew the prince better, that he had a greater chance of reading him and working him to his hearts desire.

Now there was the little worry niggling the back of his conscious that said those elves that had chased him away from the centaur village would be more trouble for him yet. But Yuugi had left them far behind, they would have no idea where he was headed, and the chances of them recognising him when he was inhabiting the body of a human, all dressed up and well mannered, were small. And even if they did, he planed to be well rooted into the prince's confidence by then, the prince would attest that he was human and therefore incapable of making it across the sea and back in such a short space of time. The prince, if Yuugi played his cards right, would fight for him. He was sure of it.

It was then, as his thoughts once again began to dwell on the elfin prince, that Yuugi saw the dark line on the horizon for what it was.

Land lay ahead of him; he had made it back to the ice.

Yuugi grinned, increasing his speed even though his wings kept telling him they would like a break. Once over the land Yuugi recognised the shore below as similar to the one he had left from, he had arrived only a few miles down or up shore from his starting point. It was afternoon, and the sun had begun its decent towards the horizon from its highest point in the sky. Deciding it would be best not to stop to rest, as that may intrude on the time he had to befriend the prince before the other elves caught up, even if he _could _get to the prince in that time, and even if his muscles were tired it would be best to keep moving as long as there was sunlight.

And truthfully he was interested to see how long and how far his endurance lasted now he was better prepared and rested beforehand. And so following landmarks and features he remembered seeing through all that previous fog, Yuugi rode the wind with ease and delight, absorbed the warmth of the sun and often closed his eyes just to enjoy the sensations of the two of these things together. He doubted he'd ever get tired of flying.

A few hours later, when Yuugi had reached deep inland and the sea was long lost on the horizon behind, Yuugi narrowed his gaze on a small speck on the upcoming horizon that felt familiar, it only grew larger and into a more solid black as he drew closer, and presently a row of similar specks but lower appeared as well, stretching out from each side of the largest one.

With an excited and self-accomplished grin Yuugi realised he had found the Grey Mountain and the mountain range that blocked off a large part of the world from the deep parts of elfin territory. He was back where he had started again, phase one of his half formed plan was completed.

The mountains were further away then they looked, however, and it took a couple more hours of intensive flying before Yuugi finally reached the very top of the Grey Mountain, and alighted on its pinnacle, folding his worn wings gratefully on his back and curling his tail around the narrow point for better balance as his claws clutched at the rock, feeling the sensations of solid ground after so long in the air. He was met with a stunning sight. Before him lay a great vast land, beautifully coated in thick white, he had never actually seen the view from here before, he had only been around here during the night and he had never exactly been given the time to stop and admire the scenery. Many miles before him, over a vast stretch of farmland and snow coated paths and almost mirroring the Grey Mountain but not managing to reach the same sheer height, lay a single mountain within which a great white palace had been set, turrets and towers, great walls and widows melding with the rock possessing the flawless elegance of water. Under the gigantic palace lay a huge city, made of stone and thick dark wood, each building proud and strong, unique. The city was walled all around by a white stone wall that glittered in the sun and looked as if it could have been made of the snow that surrounded the city, the city itself however was completely void of snow in a clear display of magic. To the left of him spreading from the base of the mountain and looping passed the city into the distance, was a deep forest of evergreens where the trees stretched so far to the left that Yuugi could only just see its end from the highest point in what had to be the whole kingdom.

It was the forest where the Shadows had imprisoned him. Under all those trees, somewhere, lay the hellish chamber of his prison.

Yuugi shivered and turned his gaze firmly away from the forest.

His attention now back on the scene and not the scenery, Yuugi saw something that made a nervous and excited thrill run through him. The snow-covered land was far from deserted; in fact it was filled and alive with moving creatures, thousands of little black specks working their way down the Grey Mountain and towards the elfin capital city. Goblins. The first row had already engaged combat with a mounted elfin group, perking his ears, Yuugi easily picked up the sounds of shouting and screams, footsteps, the whooshing of arrows and blades. And tilting his head, Yuugi could just about catch the first whiffs of the scent of blood that was reaching so high on the wind.

Another battle? Then this was surely a war rather than the occasional skirmish Yuugi had taken it for, assuming that the elves simply hated the goblins because they hated everything that did not conform to their 'perfection'. Yuugi still had to snicker to himself, he would never understand why they felt the need to fight over such a cold place. To him it was hostile, a frozen wasteland, what was there here to fight over? Other than snow and the occasional rock? As pretty as all the whiteness was Yuugi much preferred the land he had found to the south. He hoped to return there as soon as possible.

But for now, he would concentrate on finding those Keys.

Yuugi's eyes lit up as his keen sight caught the prince galloping into the battle, at least now it wouldn't be hard to find him.

Flaring his wings, Yuugi coiled his muscles and leapt from the mountain's peak, gliding swiftly down over the battle towards the forest edge. He didn't think anyone had seen him, the glare of the sun would have distracted anyone from looking closely at the sky.

Yuugi's heart leapt as he swooped high over the prince himself, performing a strange little ditty in his chest that Yuugi couldn't identify. Relief, though, surely. It had to be relief that the prince was still alive and well, after all if he wasn't then that was all of Yuugi's best-laid plans gone to waste.

Dropping sharply, Yuugi shot into the trees like a blur, turning sharply when he was under the canopy to dig his claws into the closest tree and slow his descent before he crashed. He was definitely getting better at this flying business. Having landed safely and unnoticed, Yuugi's senses were going wild with the sheer menagerie of smells and sounds, he could _feel _the aggression and hate, the pain and death that the battlefield reeked of. It made his blood heat, made him eager to join the fight and flex his neglected claws with a scratching post of flesh.

But he mustn't. And though he had run out of food and was hungry, he was not starving, and Yuugi found it was much easier than it had been to rein in his instincts. He just hoped he could _keep_ them reined in.

The battle was in sight now, though Yuugi kept himself hidden by laying low behind the vegetation like a stalking cat. His slitted pupils narrowing as his eyesight sharpened, unable to completely control himself under the onslaught of blood. His tail tip twitched on the snow.

The prince was out there, looking like some kind of divine saint on his white horse draped in silver armour, glowing sword raised to the pale blue sky, dipping occasionally to spill blood onto the ground.

He lead well. Yuugi noted a little reluctantly, the prince definitely knew how to command his soldiers, if nothing else. And too his surprise, Yuugi found himself taking a side in this war that did not include him. He wanted the elves to win. Silently he had begun cheering when the prince killed a goblin, telling him which way to turn to kill another, warning him of possible danger, and flinching if something looked painful for him. His mind had become a running commentary of 'Left, left. Now to the right. Go for the throat, kill it! Look out for that… yes now go around that for the weak spot.' Whishing he could get in there himself and taste real fresh blood in his mouth again.

And then something strange happened. The prince turned from the front line that was pushing the goblins towards the centre and began riding back towards the forest. Heading for the stragglers, the goblins that had escaped the elfin blades.

Yuugi saw it before it happened, the prince noticed too late the goblin archer aiming for him and Yuugi had to dig his claws right into the frozen ground beneath the snow to prevent himself from shooting, more akin to a bullet than anything living, out of hiding and tearing the goblin to pieces. With an uncontrolled growl bubbling up from the very base of his stomach, Yuugi forced himself to watch as the price fell and the horse galloped into the forest.

Yuugi panicked for a good moment, wondering if the prince was dead, but then he saw the other move. And felt a fine shiver run up and down his spine when his eyes met with those over-familiar rubies. Thankfully the prince passed out before he could register what he was seeing.

Yuugi could barely believe his luck. He had been given the absolute perfect opportunity to get to the prince and gain his trust before anyone could interrupt. Waiting a moment to be sure the elf was unconscious, Yuugi cautiously crept out from the forest, the battle had moved far away now, but they could still be seen by anyone overly curious. Reaching the prince, he studied him for a moment, the arrow wound looked deep and reeked of something unnatural, poison perhaps?

Yuugi hissed quietly in displeasure, lifting his head he took in a deep breath of air through his nose, catching the scent of the individual goblin who had shot the arrow and categorising it firmly to memory for later. He glared at the direction it had vanished before turning back to the prince.

Unconscious he looked very different. The elfin qualities stood out more, the calm graceful features. Skin made of unblemished white silk. Sharp angular eyes and jaw line, high cheekbones and long ears visible from under the hair, ending in an elegant point. Signs of nobility were everywhere, the silver circlet with an eye made of opals and onyx that looked as if a third eye had opened upon the price's forehead, insignias that must have represented the royal family decorated his armour and a ring he bore on his right hand's maiden finger. Yuugi wondered if all the elves with royal blood possessed red eyes, or if it was just this prince. Was he the only one with eyes that seemed to whisper echoes of almost memory to him when he slept?

With a jolt Yuugi remembered where he was and the very real danger the prince was in. There was no other way Yuugi could do anything else without both hurting the price's immediate wound and making himself too conspicuous to others. They had to stay low. And so Yuugi clamped his teeth around the back of the prince's collar, and began to drag him backwards, moving on all fours towards the shelter of the trees. Yuugi cursed around the material in his mouth, it was a good job his teeth were strong because fully equipped in armour the elf was no lightweight to drag.

This kept on until Yuugi deemed them safe enough to not be seen through the trees, then realised that the tracks they had left behind were extremely conspicuous. If the elves were as good at finding things as important as their prince as Yuugi thought they would be, they would need to find a much better hiding place.

And that meant flying.

But the prince had to be made much more comfortable before they did that. Finding the fastenings that kept the armour in place, Yuugi peeled the chain mail off; the arrow had gone in just below the collar of the links. These goblins clearly knew how and where to aim. The blood was dripping from him now and Yuugi noted how very, very still and stiff the prince was.

Hoping against hope he knew what he was doing, Yuugi snapped the arrow so there was only about three inches left protruding from the skin. He had learned a great deal about anatomy since fresh food like this was his main food source after all. The wound had to be both sterilised and he had to be sure nothing was left in there, so yanking it out would not be the best way. Yuugi tried to tease it out of the skin by gently tugging. The prince did not move a muscle. And the arrow would not budge. Making frustrated sounds to himself Yuugi sat back on his heels and tried to think what he could do.

The arrow was stuck fast into the tissue. It would not be teased out. Yanking it would cause a lot of internal tissues to be ripped – therefore more bleeding – and there was a high risk of the arrow head not coming out with the shaft – which would cause even worse problems. It was as if cold made it… stick… faster…

Yuugi's thought trail fizzled out as an idea hit him with sharp clarity. He felt stupid for not realising it before. Heat. Heat not only made things more pliable but it helped to sterilise things.

He would have to move quickly, not only would the pain possibly wake the prince, the scent of blood from the wound was making him uncomfortably hungry. So Yuugi concentrated, pushing the heat of fire into his claws until they glowed a deep red. Sharpening his sight until he could almost see each skin follicle, Yuugi positioned his index and maiden fingers from each hand near the entry point of the arrow. The heat that rose from them wobbled as it lifted through the icy air.

It was over in an instant. Yuugi prised his four claws into the skin so the arrow was surrounded, twisted it a little, and pulled the whole thing out. It came free easily this time, and once free the wood disintegrated into ashes, the metal melting and slipping onto the snow to harden again. The skin smoked a little, but was no longer bleeding, the burn had caused the skin to seal over, the hole where the arrow had been would not close immediately, but elfin healing rates would definitely help it along. There would be scarring, but it would be minimal compared to what it could have been, only a small circle of scar tissue just below the right collar bone. There was nothing he could do about the poison he was sure was circulating the prince's body, Yuugi hoped it wasn't fatal and he would recover by himself. If not that was his plan down the drain and he'd have to resort to thievery.

But for now, he'd need all his strength to carry the prince's weight and his own on his wings, and his stomach wholeheartedly agreed to some fresh goblin archer. The prince would be fine for a little while.

Turning to stalk the forests border, Yuugi followed the whiffs of that goblin's scent that had run from Yami after shooting him down. His mind's focus narrowed until he forgot that there was a world outside of hunting down this prey, he concentrated only on the scent and the feel of the snow under his claws as he ran along the set of tracks the goblin had left behind. It was heading towards the Grey Mountain. It wouldn't reach home.

He could see it now, trudging through snow ahead, its short bow by its side, chittering complaints to itself. The land rolled by beneath Yuugi, the sky was growing overcast with clouds the colour of storms, his wings lay flat and his tail straight as he streamlined so fast his feet could barely keep up. The snake hissed quietly through his fire, little flares of red lighting momentarily along his back. Adrenaline sung in his blood, anticipation gnawing his nerves. Yuugi loved this. The hunt set him free to be the creature his darker thoughts wanted him to be, it scared him a little, that he was so eager to give into instincts demands and let them use him to rip and tear and leave behind a trail of blood. If he ever truly gave in that would happen, and the massacre would leave him horrified and disgusted with himself. But by all of hell, he would have loved it while it lasted.

The goblin was close now, Yuugi wanted it to see its death coming at it. In fact, his thoughts turned darker, he wanted it to know why he was going to kill it. Slowly. The serpent flicked its forked tongue, and Yuugi smiled a fanged grin. He wondered how blood would taste when flavoured by terror. He let out a purposeful growl, vicious and loud, so that the goblin heard and turned to look behind it. It screeched, no doubt recognising Yuugi from the time he had spent in that coliseum, clutched its bow and tried to pull an arrow out of its quiver to aim at him. It was a brave one, Yuugi would give it that, he would also be sure to break that before killing it.

The goblin's arrow trembled too much in his grip, and the aim was far out of range of the demon barrelling towards it, frantically it sought for another, but he was only nooking the notch of the shaft onto the thick string by the time Yuugi was there. He blinked, and when he opened his eyes the demon was smiling at him with a terrifying enjoyment, the arrow snapped in the demon's claws and his bow was soon ashes on the wind. Before the goblin could think on the situation, the demon had lifted itself up onto two legs and lifted him so his feet dangled in the air; its claws fastened tightly in his leather collar.

Yuugi took a long, deep breath through his nose. This was the one alright. He would enjoy this.

"We've been a bad little archer, haven't we?" Yuugi crooned at it, his eyelids lowered hypnotically.

It only writhed, breathless, in his grip. Yuugi scowled, "You speak, don't you?"

When no answer seemed forthcoming Yuugi lost his patience with it, his stomach said to just tear into it already, but his mind wanted to play. Growling he dropped the goblin, that fell to its knees gasping for breath. Yuugi whipped his tail round until with a dull 'thwack' it hit the goblin's cheek with the blunt force of muscle, it fell on its side with a squeal and tried to pick itself up but Yuugi soon halted its pitiful escape attempt by wrapping his tail around its neck and hoisting it back in front of him, kneeling. They looked at each other, both understanding that Yuugi could snap the goblin's neck whenever he felt like it.

The wind was picking up, to the east the battle seemed to be slowing down, clouds blocked out the sky and the temperature was beginning to drop. In the distance arctic crows scratched at the air with their voices.

Yuugi narrowed his eyes, his stomach told him to finish this, his mind told him to draw it out for maximum pleasure in pain, but his heart reminded him that a certain elf was currently lying helpless and possibly dying of poisoning deep in a forest full of dangers.

His tightened his tail's grip around the goblin's neck, "Speak."

The goblin chocked, then ground out the words, "Speak of what, demon?"

Yuugi smiled a little at this small success, "What is in those arrows of yours?"

A snarl, "What concern is that to an overgrown lizard?"

In anger Yuugi picked the goblin up with his tail and threw it against the ground, leaping to pin it to there with his claws slowly piercing the flesh he leaned in so their faces where close and whispered with magically heated breath, "The concern is whether or not your next answer saves your life."

The goblin looked back, trying to bank its fear behind a mask of insolence, "A lie. Why would you let me go?"

"Because it is in my interest to get away from here as soon as possible, as is yours. If you tell me right now how to cure the poison that was in those arrows I will let you walk away from me with scratches. If you hesitate I will tear you apart and eat you alive. I'm not fussed either way, you have one hope left, trust me or die."

The goblin was silent a moment, but as Yuugi raked his claws, already deeply embedded in flesh, along the goblins arms it gave in with a shriek, "Sanies! Sanies leaves will cure the poison!"

Yuugi raised an eyebrow, "And what exactly are they?"

The goblin gasped, hoping now that this would be the key to his life, "They are small leaves from a plant found only in dim areas." When Yuugi growled for him to elaborate the goblin poured it all out in one great hurried breath, "They're a dark green, but have a fine coating of white hairs that make them look like there is always frost on them. If you stew them in boiling water until they disintegrate, then drink the water it will cure you of the poison. Just a handful is needed, too many will cause an adverse effect of a deep sleep that freezes the bones. They smell like iron, you won't be able to miss them."

Yuugi tilted his gaze to look at the woods, "You can find them in the forest?"

The goblin nodded frantically. Yuugi grunted his approval and stood, taking a step back and allowing the goblin to get up, giving him room to run. Yuugi watched its back as it ran, letting it get a safe distance away before smirking, time to try something new.

"You can't really have thought I meant it when I said I'd let you live after meeting me." Yuugi spoke to the air, letting heat gather up inside of him and climb, searing hot, up through his body and into his mouth. He took a deep breath, braced his clawed feet into the frozen ground beneath the snow, opened his mouth, and roared forth a stream of golden fire. The flames shot over the ground faster than the goblin could run, melting the snow as it went, engulfing and roasting him instantly until only well cooked remains were left gently steaming on the ground.

Time for dinner.

* * *

It hadn't taken Yuugi too long to find those leaves. In fact it had taken much less time than he had anticipated. The smell of iron the goblin had described was more potent than he thought, it weaved through the trees like threads loosed from fabric, catching his attention as he roamed the woods and leading him towards them with a clear path. The scent filled his nose even now, a good few leaves clutched in his hand as he made his way back to where the prince was. He needed to get them some place safer, more sheltered, as soon as possible. With the setting sun the clouds had turned the night black, and he could sense in the wind that a snowstorm was coming fast.

Thankfully, when Yuugi finally reached the elf, he was still there and unharmed. Not looking any better, but not looking any worse. With a soft curse Yuugi realised he had forgotten to ask the goblin if the poison was fatal or not. Oh well, not much he could ask it now. Stuffing the leaves into the now empty bag the centaurs had given him, Yuugi knelt down, and hoisted the prince up and over his back, holding the limp arms around his neck and letting the head rest on his shoulder, Yuugi stood to test his balance. The prince was certainly no lightweight, but he could just about manage it for as long as it took to find better shelter.

It took a hell of a lot more effort to get the pair of them airborne than it did with just him, but once they had gained enough height to level out it was a little easier. The wind definitely helped him keep air under his wings; it would have been harder if the weather had been still.

Yuugi scanned the area with his enhanced vision, hoping to find something before he sprained a wing joint or the storm kicked up, compared to the Shadow's Hell this black night was as bright as a rainbow so navigation wasn't going to be a problem. After many long minutes of soaring and the weather deteriorating to the point where Yuugi was finding it more difficult to stay on course in the strong wind, which was steadily growing into a fierce gale, his gaze finally caught sight of something by the foot of the mountain range, many miles east of the Grey Mountain. A cave. On foot it would be a steady two-hour climb from the base up to its position, but in the air Yuugi angled down and alighted by its entrance in moments. The cave was pitch black inside, but dry and vacant, hitching the elf up higher on his shoulders Yuugi worked his way inside the narrow opening just as the first balls of hail and snow began to fall.

Inside, the cave was about as tall and as wide as Solomon's tent had been, only a lot more irregular in shape. Yuugi quickly lowered the prince down at the back of the cave where it was warmest, letting him lie on the hard ground. Yuugi pulled the leaves back out of his bag, ready to administer them, when he realised the gaping hole in his plan. He had no bowl. Nor any water.

Yuugi gave a long, frustrated sigh, his patience beginning to wear very thin with all these little set backs. It was enough to make him want to leave the prince here and just enjoy what life could give him. It would certainly be simpler. But neither his curiosity nor his conscience would let him do that.

With a long look at the blizzard outside, Yuugi reluctantly threw himself into the melee of wind and ice to find the necessary wood.

Less than an hour later, he returned in a foul mood.

"You owe me." Yuugi hissed at the unconscious elf on the floor, as he stumbled past, soaking wet, freezing, and struggling under a large pile of wood to carve and burn.

He used his claws to dig a hollow out of a think block of wood, and filled it with the heaping snow outside, then he pilled the wood into a neat pyramid and lit it with a spark from his magic. He wanted to warm the whole cave up now even he was shivering in the cold, and warming it up by his own constant magic would exhaust him. Yuugi melted the snow over the resulting flames, kept under control by the lack of other things to catch fire to in the cave, then stuffed the leaves inside the water and poked them in the boiling water (the heat didn't bother him) with his claw until they had completely disintegrated, turning the water a deep unpleasant looking green. Yuugi wrinkled his nose at the strong smell of iron, glad he wasn't the one that had to drink the stuff, and held it outside in the snow for a moment to cool it down to normal drinking level for non-demons.

Yuugi scowled to himself as he once again knelt by the prince's side, feeling far too much like a nanny for his own comfort. He held the elf's head up with one hand after parting his lips, and poured the drink into his mouth from the bowl with the other. Making the prince swallow it was no easy task, and Yuugi was given the distinct impression that half of it ended up on the prince's clothes, but that wasn't his loss, and there was probably more than enough of it anyway.

After placing the empty bowl back on the floor, Yuugi watched the elf for any signs of recovery. Hell, he'd settle for any sign of life other than frozen, limp limbs and breathing so shallow even he had to stop and make sure it was actually there. Yuugi's eyes caught sight of the deathly white skin picking up more pigmentation under the flickering firelight. After a pause Yuugi leaned closer to listen to the prince's breathing, it was a little deeper, less rattling than before.

He was recovering.

Yuugi froze, his eyes widening, as the prince groaned, turning his head as his eyelids fluttered, he suddenly sounded dangerously close to waking up. But Yuugi didn't have time to move, a hand had clutched with surprising strength around his tunic and the prince seemed to grimace in pain in his sleep. Yuugi was beginning to panic slightly, this was bad, the prince couldn't see him like this. It would ruin everything!

But then, as soon as it started, it stopped. And the prince was still again. His body relaxing and his expression smoothening out as he fell into a natural sleep not forced on him by poison. His hand unclenched, but still gripped Yuugi's clothing loosely.

Breathing out to calm himself Yuugi loosed the elf's grip on his tunic and lay the arm back down by his side. An involuntary smile pulled at his lips seeing the prince laying in a healthy sleep now. After all, he was very attractive; it would be a shame if he were lost.

As if on second nature, Yuugi quickly dipped his head and brushed their lips together with the faintest of touches. A shock of sparks in his body made Yuugi jerk backwards. There was disbelief, why had he just done that? And why had there been not only a pleasurable tingle on his lips but a jolt in the back of his mind that seemed to almost dislodge the shadows there that he was sure contained old memories. It was that feeling again, the same feeling of having done all this before many, many eons ago.

It could not be possible, Yuugi kept telling himself, he was far too old and the prince far too young for him to be someone he had known. And the prince would remember it he had known Yuugi. So, maybe, someone else? Someone completely different? Another demon he had loved perhaps, that the Shadows separated from him. It was all far too much to think about when he was so tired.

Yuugi growled in frustration, leaving the prince's side to find somewhere to sleep now the cave had warmed up. It wasn't as if he cared about the stupid, self-obsessed, accident-prone elfin prince, he was just apart of the plan. He was just another rung on the ladder to those Keys, and his past.

And after all, Yuugi smirked to himself as he watched the unconscious elf, what better way to steal those Keys from the elves then by manipulating their prince?

* * *

"_W-what? But Yuugi… your prince…"_

"_You said it before, Ryou, that it's illegal for me to be with him."_

"_And you said to me that you would fight to the death to keep him!"_

"_I – "_

"_And you're just giving up on all that the two of you have been through?!"_

"_Ryou, please…"_

"_I don't understand. Do you not love him anymore?"_

"_It… it isn't like that…"_

"_Yes or no, Yuugi, do you still love him?"_

"… _no."_

**AN: **Do Not Panic about the italics at the end here! Yuugi has reasons and the reasons may or may not be explained soon lol. I think people are beginning to get very confused about what the italics are on about, so if people want I can write a bonus 'chapter' that sumerises in a nutshell exactly what has happened and why. I would also be willing to answer any questions people have about the story in this 'chapter' so that it might make more sense. Sometimes I honestly do forget I'm the only one that acually knows what's going to happen lol.

So if people want me to do that I'm more than willing, just make sure you tell me that lol.

Review Please!


	13. Chapter Twelve

**AN: **The chapter that will explain everything about the italics is in the works but until then here is another lovely chapter I'm sure you wont be too disappointed with. After all, they meet again for real this time.

**Firefly In Ice**

**Chapter Twelve**

"_Your Highness, please, you must calm yourself."_

"_How can I be calm, peon, when everything is falling apart?"_

"_Now, Sire, I'm sure that is not true. The Kingdom still stands intact."_

"_But I do not! And it's all thanks to your damnable lover!"_

"_Seth?"_

"_Who else? The cousin I wish I never had, the one elf I would truly love to throw to the Ice Clan unarmed!"_

"_Sir, you wouldn't!"_

"_Of course I wouldn't! That doesn't mean I wouldn't like to." _

"_What has Seth done to deserve such anger?"_

"_He has ruined everything."_

"… _Sire?"_

"… _What if Yuugi _did_ lie to me?"_

* * *

It was not how he had heard it described by so many others. Far from what the texts on the subject told him. Different from what he had always expected.

It did not feel like he was floating. Unconsciousness did not feel weightless and worry free. It felt like he was tied to his pain by iron chains with spiked links. An anchor fixing a kite to the ground. Perhaps it was the poison. Perhaps it was his endurance. But all Yami knew was that this pain was keeping him from resting. He was dead to the world, there was nothing beyond the small sphere of darkness he was aware of, and even then only half aware. He felt, as if at a great distance, sensations within his physical body, but they were detached from his mind and felt unimportant. His grasp on such sensations slipping from between his fingers like sand. He thought he heard the sound of wings, but so muffled in his ears that it could just have easily been the sound of the sea. He felt twinges and prickles in his skin that made him unable to move, they built in his veins until it felt like the blood had thickened to the point where it could no longer flow, or there was too much of it to flow, and it hurt. It hurt like hell.

And then, suddenly, there was warmth.

It began in his mouth and flowed like life giving air down his throat. He could hear its soft hiss, as it seemed to loosen the thick blood in his body so it could flow again. Pooling in the stomach it thawed his frozen muscles until he began to feel them again, spreading slowly outwards until the sensations within his body no longer felt so far away. It was taking a long while for his shoulder and arm, the apparent source of the paralytic pain, to succumb to the same blissful effect, but that didn't matter so much now he could feel himself again.

Yami's mind began to wake itself from the enforced slumber. Vaguely he described the sensation as rising out of a sticky glue, the poison still running far too rampant in his body for him to remember much other than the arrow, the pain, and the strange eyes from the forest.

But then he started to become too aware of himself, and the very physical pain of his injuries caused a fierce agonising flare throughout his nerves, as if all of his body's receptors were all fighting at the same time to make their way through the nerve pathways and inform his brain of exactly how much they disliked being treated as such.

A vibration moved in his throat, which Yami managed to identify as a groan. A muscle was cramping in his arm and desperately Yami moved it to try and grip hold of something to steady himself as the hard floor pressing against his back seemed to tilt as if he were at sea. Surprisingly though, his searching fingers found and curled around something. Fabric warmed with body heat.

He thought he heard a voice. A gentle voice filled with something familiar and soothing. His memory was triggered by the sound and echoed back to him the same voice he had been hearing in his fitful dreams.

He felt his head turn as if it were not his own, his desire to discover who it was that was with him, because there was definitely someone there, driving him to fight against his desire to fall back into unconsciousness. His eyelids felt like the skin of a tough fruit that needed to be peeled back forcefully with a knife, they would not open fully and he only caught a single tiny glimpse of a vague and blurry image of something definitely alive. But like nothing he had seen before.

Before Yami could even try to comprehend what he had seen, he felt a compulsive loosening in his body, and everything relaxed. Whatever had cured the poison was also sending him to sleep. His fingers lost their grip and he lost awareness of himself.

This time, it really was like he was floating.

* * *

Waking up for the second time was not as hard as fighting to stay awake had been before. Yami was not sure what woke him, what forced his floating conscious to ground itself so suddenly to his body, but quite suddenly he was awake and aware. Groggy, very groggy, but awake.

Without opening his eyes Yami tried to remember what had happened. He had been fighting. He had been shot and fallen. He saw some strange forest creature watching him. And then nothing. Yami groaned in pain and annoyance, his brows furrowing as he tried to muster up enough will power to open his eyes.

His wounds were giving him hell. The sharp stabbing pain steaming from his shoulder was like slow torture. His entire body felt stiff and was stubbornly refusing to move, Yami was scared to even try moving it in fear of the pain that might be caused by his attempt. He felt paralysed, and yet he knew he should not be. It was the pain and shock, probably, that was making him so scared to try moving.

His attention was caught be the sound of a gentle crackling, an undertones of hisses could be caught between the louder crackles and occasional snaps. Warmth was spreading from the direction of the noise, and although he had no qualms against the cold, Yami felt himself grateful and drawn to it.

With effort Yami forced his eyes to open. He had to blink many times before his vision cleared enough for his sight to become clear but when it did, he felt a small stab of shameful fear through his chest. He was not where he had been when he passed out. That much Yami remembered with clarity, he had been lying in snow by the fringe of the forest. What he was looking at was the roof of a cave, lying flat on his back in a cave with no idea how he had gotten there. The rock was thankfully dry underneath, yet his clothes felt damp, both where he had been in the snow and from something that smelled strongly of iron.

Someone had removed most of his armour.

Confused, Yami turned his gaze towards the source of heat. A small fire was burning a few feet away, golden flames tinged with red and orange licking at the air and making the whole cave warm and light.

Someone had brought him here.

He remembered that arrow now, shot by a goblin before he could reach it, a foolish amateur mistake on his part, one that could have cost him his life. But the arrow had been poisoned; there was no other explanation as to his paralysis and strangely unconscious but almost conscious state of before, where he could almost touch reality but not actually hold any sway over it in his thoughts.

He recognised the scent of iron then, the memory of it flooding back with images of the infirmary, people crying and Jounouchi looking as if he was death warmed up. Seto's body. His own anger and strange indifference. He suddenly knew how close he had come to death, of how close he had come to dying just the way his cousin had. If the arrow had pierced his heart…

Someone had cured him.

But who? The cave was empty. Wearily Yami closed his eyes again to evoke his magic to see if there were any trails he could recognise, at the very least he would be able to figure out if his rescuer was goblin or elfin. But as soon as he touched the part of his mind that held the natural magic behind a thin barrier, a sharp spike of agony shot through him and a headache like he'd never felt before caused him to clench his teeth and grunt in pain. He had felt, in that moment, that the barrier between him and his magic had become inexplicably thicker, to the point where it felt like it had when he first started learning how to use it. How was that possible? How was it possible for him to loose contact with such a huge part of himself just like that? His headache made it hard to think too deeply so Yami cut off the steadily forming panic at the feel of his helplessness before it could really form, worrying about it would do no good. There had to be an explanation, and he would find it and eliminate the problem as soon as he got home.

Giving up on the magic Yami opened his eyes to gaze at the ceiling. If he got home.

His depressive musings were cut off by a sound near the cave entrance; panic and necessity caused him to react despite his fear of paralysis. He moved quickly to sit up and get himself into a more ready and less vulnerable position, his muscles were uncomfortably stiff and his bones seemed chilled and highly brittle but he managed it nonetheless. Yami instinctually reached for his sword, his eyes widening when his hand closed around air instead of the familiar hilt.

Glancing around he saw his sword on top of a small pile with the rest of his armour, but it was on the other side of the cave, he had neither the strength nor the time to reach it before whoever it was saw him going for it. Which would probably only cause injury to Yami when the person reacted for his own safety.

He froze when the sunlight filtering through the narrow cave entrance became half obscured by a figure. It was only a silhouette, the light from behind prevented any features from being identified. But whatever it was, it was a small creature. Which increased the chance of it being a goblin. Yami wished he had his sword.

It was when the figure stepped into the cave and the light from the fire illuminated him, that Yami finally realised that he must be going mad with all the residue from the poison left behind.

His mouth opened in a way that if he could have seen himself he would have had some very harsh scolding to do for the complete lack of dignity it involved. His eyes grew wide and seemed to forget they had the ability to blink. Everything seemed to freeze as his eyes met with a pair of by now ridiculously familiar amethysts.

"About time you woke up." Said the human, resting a hand on his hip and looking at him with a strangely neutral expression.

"Impossible." He found himself muttering, sheer disbelief in his voice.

The human looked just as he had when Yami had last seen him chained to the walls of his cell, there were no injuries or signs of fatigue, nothing whatsoever to suggest he had been living in the wild for the past week or so now. He was barefoot and a little wild looking, but perfectly fine and apparently sentient. The tunic he wore was cleaner though, as if it had just been washed thoroughly.

"Typical though," the human said with a smile, "I leave for ten minutes to wash and I miss your grand awakening. Although looking at you I'd say you need a few more hours."

"How…" Yami was having trouble getting his mind to catch up with his mouth and the sentence fizzled out on his tongue before he had a chance to think about what to say. It was impossible that this human would still be alive, not just because he shouldn't have been able to escape the goblins, but also because he should have frozen to death by now.

"How what?" The human tilted his head to the side with an all too cocky smile, an eyebrow raised and a look of teasing mirth in his eyes. He took a couple of steps forward, towards him, and Yami tensed before realising the human was just dropping the bag that hung from his shoulder to the floor by the fire. It gave a heavy 'thump' sound as it hit the stone, Yami was torn between eyeing it suspiciously and keeping up his glaring at the human.

"How are you still alive?" Yami managed to get out and was mildly proud of how commanding he managed to make his voice sound.

The boy crouched by the fire to warm his hands, but watched Yami out of the corner of his eye as he spoke, "Through luck, skill, and no help from your lot."

Yami flared up indignantly, "My lot? Without us you'd still be chained to that wall!"

The boy shrugged, "I would have escaped eventually by myself. I never needed help, per say, although your initial assistance was useful, your follow up of this assistance was lacking at best and a complete fuck up at worst."

Yami was, for once in his life, rendered speechless for lack of comebacks. Only capable of guessing what the boy was hinting at. Was he talking about their near defeat? But the boy hadn't been there when they had been surrounded, or when the supernatural fire came. Then again, Yami reminded himself, they hadn't known where the boy was, he could have been absolutely anywhere.

He was interrupted from his thoughts when the boy spoke again, "We should probably get a closer look at those wounds of yours."

He had straightened from crouching by the fire and was approaching rapidly towards Yami, and the prince, still a little disorientated and in pain, reacted without thinking.

He pushed himself away from the boy with force and concentrated all of his effort into standing, his joints protested and his muscles cramped, the sudden change and movement caused the world to tilt dangerously. And the next second Yami found himself being heavily supported by the human boy, those thin arms encircling him to keep him steady. Yami groaned into the other's shoulder; where he found his head had fallen, his headache had returned full force and was only aiding the pain he already felt throughout his stiff body.

For a long moment they just stood there, Yami trying to remember what had just happened and the boy only tightening his grip to keep them steady.

The boy sighed, "Still a bit drugged I think, perhaps you should lie down."

Yami frowned into the boy's shoulder, the whistling in his ears was back and it took a moment for what had been said to filter through the pain of his pounding head. When it did he suddenly realised the situation, and it went along the rather limited thought lines of this: 'I'm being touched by a commoner.' And the humiliation that came with that revelation caused him to react suddenly and violently.

He both pulled away from the boy and pushed him back at the same time, cancelling their close proximity, when the world tilted again and he fell back against the wall. Clutching the cold stone Yami peered out between strands of hair, breathing heavy as his body shook with the effort to keep standing. He had seen the boy stumble backwards just as Yami had, taken by surprise and unprepared for the sudden assault. What really caused the drug-fogged cogs of his brain to start turning, however, was what the boy was doing. He had stumbled backwards into the fire.

And was now stood with one foot in the flames as if he didn't even notice the fact that he should be burning now.

And then a flood of thoughts came to him through his pain, all connecting themselves one by one in his mind. The fire was the same colour as that unnatural blaze that had saved his small party of rescued elves. The boy had somehow managed to survive where no human dared to tread with apparent ease, in the thinnest clothes imaginable before they became see-through. And not only that, he had managed to survive looking no worse for wear (therefore he had to be finding food) and managed to haul an unconscious elf and his armour from where he had passed out to wherever he was now. None of these things added up to what the boy took the form of.

"What are you?" Yami hissed, gripping the stone tighter when his knees gave a particularly strong threat that they were about to give way. "You aren't human, what are you!?"

"That's a very large accusation to make, elf." Was the only thing the boy said, a colder tint to his voice now and a frown on his features. He looked down at the foot still surrounded by flames, and calmly lifted it from the fire to step away. "Especially considering the likelihood of you seeing things that may not entirely be there. You haven't exactly just woken from a peaceful good night's rest now have you?"

The boy's words almost worked for a moment, succeeding in forcing Yami to doubt what he had seen when he thought about how many foreign substances had been running rampant in his body for the past hours, possibly days. But then Yami remembered that the boy had supposedly been human, and how impossible it should be for him to have survived. He was a tricky little creature, whatever he was. But Yami was falling for none of it.

"I may be a little… less sharp than usual," Yami spoke with as steady a voice as he could muster with the effort he had to pour into standing up, "But that doesn't make me stupid. You should have died by now. You should, at the very least, have been injured or look less composed then you do now. And that fire is the same fire I saw at the top of the Grey Mountain. I saw a figure amongst the flames; it was you, wasn't it? What are you?"

"I save your life and all I get in gratitude is interrogation?"

"Answer me!" With this final command, shouted loud enough in his frustration so that Yami felt his throat ache, forced the last of the strength out of him. Breathing heavily he lost his grip on the wall and slid down to sit on the floor, leaning against the rock to stay upright and never taking his eyes off the boy. This time, when he had lost his balance, the boy had made no effort to help him.

The boy had grown cold in his manner now, as if angered and insulted by the prince's ungrateful distain. When he spoke it was low and borderline mocking, "You're a smart boy, little prince, can't you figure it out yourself?"

If Yami had had the strength he certainly would have had a more persuasive reaction to this statement, but as it was he couldn't even touch his magic let alone use it in a fight. He watched in silence as the boy looked away to sit down next to the fire again, crossing his legs and staring gloomily into the flames. There was definitely something with the fire that would help define his identity. Sometimes, perhaps once or twice in a few millennia, the spirits that made up the elements would react strangely for unexplained reasons, what the elves believed was to blame was an alignment of the heavens, but this could not be proved. However, sometimes one of these spirits would become more individual from the rest, who all operated as a single minded mass, and eventually that spirit would become conscious of itself as a being. It was then that, sometimes, they could take on physical forms. This boy was not human, but he was displaying all the hallmarks of an estranged spirit.

"You're a fire spirit!" Yami was so shocked and pleased by this revelation of his that he forgot to guard his voice into something more becoming of a prince. The boy's face was mostly obscured by his hair, and so Yami could not see his face, but he remained silent in a strangely tense way. Yami wanted to grin at this personal victory, but was almost angry at the boy for keeping the secret. It would have been a great deal more helpful if they had known from the start what the boy was, "Why didn't you just tell us what you were?"

There was a long pause, in which Yami noted how tense the boy's shoulders were, before he said in a small voice, "I did not know what you would think of me if you knew what I was. You labelled me human, at the time it was easier to just roll with that assumption."

Yami shook his head in exasperation, such a large fuss for such a small secret, spirits were strange things indeed. Now he had what he wanted from the boy he was much more content to just sit quietly. It seemed as if the boy did not wish to harm him so he put himself a little more at ease. His headache throbbed inside his skull; the pressure was enough to make him close his eyes in an attempt to somehow relieve the strain. When he opened his eyes again the boy hadn't moved, but he had lifted his head enough for his face to be seen from the side now. He was exactly as the prince remembered him, exactly as his mind had kept wantonly picturing for him. Small and slim in a way that made him look as if he could be very athletic if he wanted to be, his skin was white and unmarked providing an elegance to the fluid way in which his body was formed and seemed to move. It had been obvious from the beginning, Yami thought to himself with a reprimand, that the boy hadn't been human. No human could be that attractive, surely. And none of them had eyes that made him feel like he was falling into a star strewn night sky. His chest constricted when the boy's head moved slightly and the firelight caught the edge of his jaw and lips just right, a dream he had forced himself to forget flooding back to him. His pain all but forgotten in the trance that seemed to have fallen over him, Yami wished he could remember why exactly he had wanted to push the boy away from him when all he could think about right now was how soft that skin must feel.

"Thank you." Yami heard himself say suddenly.

The boy looked at him with slightly wide eyes as if he was shocked to hear such a sentiment, "For what?"

"For…" Yami was not very good at expressing gratitude, and this was beginning to feel extremely uncomfortable to him, "For… you know why."

The boy looked at him for a long moment before giving a small little smile, he shook his head and turned back to the flames, "Your welcome."

Yami simmered silently to himself, suddenly irritated and not quite understanding why. The headache had lessened thankfully, and he could see now without his eyes aching. There was something that was bothering him and he didn't know what, something that he wanted to do but didn't want to do at the same time. He watched the boy reach a hand forward and couldn't suppress a small flinch as that small hand reached fearlessly into the flames, even though he knew that the boy wouldn't be harmed it was still so strange to watch.

The boy took a small handful of brightly glowing embers from the crackling wood and studied them in his palm as if fascinated by them, "So what is your name?"

The prince gave the boy a sharp look, his anger suddenly flaring up in an unreasonable desire to lash out at something, "My name? You have no right to speak my name, I am a Prince to you, and you will address me with the correct titles!"

The boy raised an eyebrow, letting a few embers roll over his fingers and palm with feigned interest, "I _did_ save your life you know. Twice. I think I may have earned the right to at least learn your name."

Yami glared at him as he was reluctantly forced to realise that he _did_, in fact, owe his life twice over to this fire spirit he had thought was nothing more than a boy, but the spirit opened his mouth to continue before he could decide what to do, "And besides, you aren't _my_ prince. Elfin authority holds no power over me. So you can either tell me your name or I can continue to call you 'elf'."

There was a pause, Yami desperately searching for a way to reserve what modesty he had left (having a commoner call him by his birth name would definitely shred that to pieces) but at the same time refusing to lie. The spirit continued to smile pleasantly at him while rolling the now cooled embers between his fingers.

Then he spoke again, his dark eyes taking on a hypnotic shade, "In return I would give you _my_ name."

Yami's gaze shot up to him in shock, how had the spirit known that to be such an effective bargaining tool? How could he have known what Yami had been thinking and wondering about for the past week? Were spirits capable of infiltrating a persons mind? But how could he have done that without Yami noticing, he had been trained since practically birth to keep a fierce defence around his mind at all times. The prince would have felt any attempt to breech that defence!

Yami forced himself to calm down; his thoughts had nearly completely run away with themselves there, it was highly unlikely that the boy actually knew everything that Yami had gone through the past days and nights since meeting him and it was even less likely that the boy had read his mind. Coincidence. Just coincidence.

The boy was still looking at him expectantly, that coaxing look still shadowing his eyes, Yami looked away with a scowl. "Fine," he snapped, "Motou. Motou Yami."

The spirit nodded, his smile more noticeable now, "See, now that wasn't so hard was it? Motou…" he paused with a pensive look, "Mind if I just call you Yami?"

Yami shot him a well-aimed glare to try and communicate without words that first name basis was going too far, but the spirit pointedly ignored it (though Yami knew he had seen) with a laugh that made the prince's chest constrict strangely again. What was with him today? It had to be the drugs. He could not desire a creature so un-elfish in their manners and disrespecting of his culture and status, it was foolish to even suggest he would be so… weak as to fall for the flirtatious whims of a fire spirit.

"Alright then Yami," the boy said cheerfully with an emphasis on the name, "My name is Yuugi. Just Yuugi."

The name was a pretty little thing with an impishly tricky undertone, Yami found himself thinking, and it suited the spirit perfectly. He wondered where the spirit had found the name, as it was highly likely that he had named himself, it sounded very strange, like it belonged to a time long past.

"How old are you, exactly?" Yami asked of him.

"Haven't a clue. Why?" Yuugi threw the cold embers onto the floor and turned to look at him fully. The smile had not faded from his lips.

"You have no idea as to when you were created?" Yami asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Long before you were born, little prince, and that's all I know." Yuugi placed an emphasis on 'little' in an almost taunting way, but with enough subtlety that Yami could not accuse him of being insulting.

Yami looked away from his eyes, unwilling to make eye contact and risk getting lost in the colour again. There was an almost pleasant silence until he asked, "When are we, well, when am I going to be able to get home?"

Yuugi turned his gaze to look at the sky outside the cave, it was growing steadily darker and the deadly chill was setting in again, "We'll set off tomorrow if you think you're well enough. Tonight I don't think you should move anywhere other than lying down to sleep."

Yami reluctantly admitted that he was right; he could barely stand right now let alone walk miles. But he wasn't sure he wanted to sleep in an uncomfortable cave with a relative stranger, lifesaver or not.

And suddenly the spirit was right in front of him, their faces only a few inches away from each other. Yami held his breath in shock and to control the sudden inexplicable urge to do something very un-princely. Yuugi grinned cheekily and dropped something onto his lap then backed away.

"Relax, I don't bite. Well… I do but only on… special occasions." The spirit said, with an unmistakeably coy expression on his face that made Yami clench his hands around the fabric the boy had dropped on him.

Yami tore his gaze away from the spirit, looking down at the bundle of his own clothes stuffed into the bag.

"I know the cold doesn't bother you, so you can use it as a pillow or something." The boy said, settling himself down in front of the fire again and laying down on the stone, "We should sleep now so we can get up early tomorrow to get the best of the daylight. And there's nothing quite as good for an ailment as sleep."

Yami would have complained that he didn't need sleep, he'd been sleeping for what must have been a whole day and night by now and he wanted more information out of the boy, but a sudden wave of weariness caused a large yawn to escape him. Lifting a hand to cover his mouth Yami conceded defeat for the time being and decided that at least trying to sleep on this awfully uncomfortable floor would be a good idea.

It took a long while of tossing and turning with his head propped up on the improvised pillow until Yami managed to find a spot just about comfortable enough to begin drifting off in. When he had settled with his back against the wall Yami noticed that the boy was facing away from him, which gave him ample room to stare all he wanted at the figure. After a long moment he realised that the boy had given him the pillow but had left nothing for himself, he had to be incredibly uncomfortable like that. Was the boy alright like that? The pillow was big enough for two heads to rest on.

"Yuugi?" Yami asked after a moment.

The spirit shifted and grumbled a sleepy, "Hmm? What?"

Yami opened his mouth to extend the invitation to share the pillow, but at the last moment he realised exactly what he was doing. His nerves faltered in the face of his reason and all he could say was, "…Nothing. Goodnight."

* * *

"_Yuugi? The fire demon you love?"_

"_What if Seth was right? What if he doesn't care?"_

"_As much as I love Seth, Your Highness, he is not always right. Though he would like to be."_

"_What would you say then? What would you say about a fire demon who claims to love me?"_

"… _I would have to think, Sire. Fire demons are not known for their compassion, or their commitment. They are fire. Fire is them. They are wild, wilful, and passionate. But fire does not stay in one place for long."_

"_What are you trying to say?"_

"_Forgive me if what I say is out of place, you may disregard my words whenever you wish, Sir. But I believe that fire demons can love, and do love. I just do not believe that their love can last. They move on quickly, as the flame would. My point is not that Yuugi deceived you, but that he might not be waiting for you when you get out." _

**AN: **There, not too bad was it? I actually like this chapter. Things are going to move VERY fast now in the romanitc department... or at least in the errr sexual department. In other news I am a little nervous about my beta, also one of my bestest friends, proclaiming that we have to (as in I have no choice now lol) actually polish up and put online some of the role-plays we've done for puzzleshipping and turn them into real crack fics... the problem is they're so cracky it goes beyond the words meaning in fanfic and I have no idea if it'll be funny to anyone but us... they won't be put here on any rate, probably her profile, but still.

Review please!

And I'll see what I can do for the next update and that bonus chapter soon.

Review!


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